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November 10, 2022 Editorial by Congresswoman Julie Wong
You don’t need a crystal ball to see the future. My community has seen firsthand the impact of gentrification, displacement and extravagant development.
With more than 25,000 market-priced luxury units developed, Long Island City has seen rent growth of more than 43% over the past decade, well above the city as a whole.
Woodside, which has not seen similar luxury developments, saw rent growth of just 7% over the same period, lower than the city average.
Building more luxurious buildings than affordable apartments is how developers and policy makers sparked the housing crisis. We want to make development affordable for the most part.
In October, the City Council’s Zoning Subcommittee held a lengthy public hearing lasting almost seven hours to consider the innovation QNS proposal. The community was overwhelmingly critical, with 565 people opposing the project and 83 supporting it.
The project would be an unaffordable majority luxury development in the heart of currently working-class Astoria. It would be completely out of reach for my neighbors in the area with a median price of $1,686.
Innovation QNS’s market-priced two-bedroom can cost over $4,000, making it affordable only for families earning over $158,000 a year. This is more than double the median income of the local area and is completely inaccessible to nearly everyone living there today.
My brave neighbor’s testimony at council reflects the identity our neighbors share. Astoria has been the landing point for generations of immigrants, artists and working-class people in the city, including my family.
Our beginnings were in Astoria. 40 years ago when my uncle moved here from Korea to work in his dry cleaning. Like the countless immigrants before us, our neighbors have welcomed us to build new lives with people from all over the world.
Over the decades, this community has created a diverse and vibrant culture unique to Astoria. This culture evolves with each group of people who join us. Unfortunately, the Innovation QNS project seeks to monetize this very culture, while threatening the people who shaped it with immediate expulsion.
Since Innovation QNS arrived at City Council in October of this year, I have been actively negotiating with developers, the Mayor’s team, and the City Council’s Land Use Division to fight for more affordability.
I provided an alternative solution to reach the community’s request of 55% affordable units. Accept project-based vouchers for those currently in the shelter system, repurpose office and parking spaces into affordable housing units, and take advantage of Section 11 and 420-c tax benefits. Work with HPD to build permanently affordable apartments for ultra-low-income residents.
We are waiting for a final offer from the Innovation QNS team, but hopefully the affordability concerns from the community will not be ignored.
By allowing developers to build upscale market rate units without proper layaways to ensure affordability, rents across the city will rise and rise.
I think the solution to the affordable housing crisis is simple. Building more affordable housing. As a city, luxury development can no longer be allowed to overtake affordable housing construction.
Our community wants 55% Affordability from the Innovation QNS project. I call on Mayors, City Council Speakers, and City Council colleagues to join me in pushing for more affordability.
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