The coalition Rebuild Our Town Downtown (R.Dot), a project of the Architecture Research Institute, revealed yesterday that 55 percent of the population in lower Manhattan cannot buy housing on the Lower East Side.
A report by R.Dot, called Neighborhoods and Housing in Lower Manhattan: A Mixed Income Community, found that income levels for residents in the area is broad, which results in a “dramatic disconnection between the needs of the people and the housing reality.”
According to the report, the development of luxury housing in the area is forcing police officers, firefighters, teachers and workers in general to leave the neighborhood for cheaper areas.
The coalition said that those who earn less than $55,000 per year are methodically forced to leave their neighborhoods due to the construction of luxury housing or the expiration of existing subsidies.
Many workers who were on rescue and cleaning teams following the attacks of 9/11 are among those affected.
“The landlords don’t recognize the interdependence that exists today between people at all income levels and their need for safety and help in times of crisis,” said Beverly Willis, director of the Architecture Research Institute.
Ron Shiffman, of the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development, declared: “It is imperative that we adopt a way of constructing both types of housing, as much for the people with mixed incomes as for those that have more.”
Alan Gerson, council member of District 1, pointed out that the average annual salary for New Yorkers is between $37,000 and $47,000. The average rents for housing in New York fluctuate between $14,900 per year for a studio, $23,700 for a one bedroom apartment and $34,700 a year for a two bedroom apartment. According to Gerson, tenants should spend one third of their salaries on housing.
Following this formula, an individual should earn $44,700 to pay for a studio; $71,000 for a one bedroom and $104,000 for a two bedroom. “These costs greatly exceed what teachers, police officers, construction workers, artists and other residents earn,” concluded Gerson.
