A Q&A with Jumaane Williams

Q: Developers have said the 421-a tax-exemption program for developers is critical to spurring affordable housing construction. You have opposed continuing it. Why?

JW: To me, it doesn’t matter what it’s called—it’s more what it’s doing. And so 421-a has not been used for that purpose. The way it currently is, it has not worked to develop affordable housing. Whether we call it 421-a, whether we call it 1190, it just needs to spur affordable housing. We can look at the program now and adjust it to make sure that’s what happens or we can just start a new program. We need to make sure that we get maximum affordability for as long as possible.

Q: What do you think of the mayor’s recently released 421-a proposal?

JW: It was good. At the same time, we need to be pushing for more. We should be asking for even more of a percentage of affordable units. We should be asking to go even lower in the income bands more often than this might allow. And we should definitely be getting longer affordability. So that’s kind of the theme that we want to look for.

Q: Do you have an affordability percentage or income band goal in mind?

JW: We should be looking toward 40 (percent affordable units)-60 (percent market rate units), as close as we can get to that. And we have to make sure that 40 percent of (area median income) is more common than not common, and that you can go even lower than that. I know it’s difficult, which is why we have to subsidize getting the affordable housing built, whether it’s abatement or a direct subsidy. We have to get lower in the income band because that’s where the need is. If you look at the vacancy rate, the lower down that you go on the price scale for rent, the lower the vacancy rate is.

Q: Given the administration’s focus on using mandatory inclusionary zoning to increase the city’s affordable housing stock, how do you think this tactic can be optimized?

JW: It’s kind of the same thing. You want to make sure that you have to build affordable housing, that you have to build it on site, that it’s not an 80 (percent market rate units)-20 (percent affordable units) because that’s not enough. You want to make sure the affordability lasts as long as it can. You want to make sure that the income bands go as low as it possibly can.

Q: What other tactics should the administration pursue to achieve its affordable housing goals?

JW: The mayor’s right on the money when he talks about preservation. That is the No. 1 thing that we have to do, is preserve the affordable units that we already have. Rent regulation is a big one. We should be fighting to reserve all of those units. Units and buildings that could be coming out of regulatory programs, we want to make sure that they enter into stabilization and ask that they keep that stabilization as long as we possibly can. And we should be enticing other landlords who have buildings to enter regulatory agreements whenever they can. Whenever they need something from the city, we should exact from them agreements that get those apartments into some sort of regulatory agreement, particularly rent regulations.

Q: The Building and Construction Trades Council has offered up a less expensive labor force for affordable housing projects. How do you see them playing into this?

JW: That’s a good thing. Everybody has to give up a little bit to make this work, and that’s their offer. Then you have to discuss how that’s going to play out, and make sure that everybody’s going to have access to the jobs. But, of course, they’re going to have a major part of the conversation because they’ve been doing this for so long. Minorities and women-owned businesses have a large portion of this. They’ve always been left out, and I want to make sure they’re no longer left out as the boom is coming.