New York City renters are speeding toward poverty; 500,000+ spend more than half of income on rent

[BurtWorm]

http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/viewarticle.cfm?article_id=3576


PAYING TODAY'S RENT LEAVES LITTLE TO SPARE
The burden of rent is bringing the status of the 'near-poor' closer to that of the poor. > By Nicholas Jahr


City Limits WEEKLY #645
June 23, 2008



Springtime was full of grim news for New York City renters. In April, U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner released an analysis showing that more than 500,000 New Yorkers are spending half or more of their income on housing. In May, the Community Service Society expanded on that observation with a report showing the trend that a growing number of lower-income residents are dedicating an ever-greater fraction of their income to rent. And last week—as if to prove the point—the Rent Guidelines Board approved the highest rent increase for rent-stabilized apartments in years, allowing a 4.5 percent increase on one-year leases, an 8.5 percent increase on two-year leases, plus an unusual supplemental increase for longer-term residents. That's on top of the higher food and energy costs city residents already are grappling with.

The report by the Community Service Society (CSS) paints a picture of a city riven by increasing inequality. Drawing on data from 1996 to 2005, "Making the Rent: Who’s at Risk – Rent-Income Stresses and Housing Hardship among Low-Income New Yorkers" documents the perilous position of low-income renters in New York City. As of 2005, about one million of the city’s three million households were classified as low-income, earning no more than twice the federal poverty threshold (which comes to $35,200 a year for a family of three). The majority of them find their homes in the private, unsubsidized rental market. “If you look at the top income third,” said Victor Bach, CSS senior policy analyst for housing and one of the authors of the report, “over half of households own rather than rent, whereas if you look at the bottom third, nearly everybody rents.”

Over the period covered by the report, the median rent burden shouldered by all tenants—or what the report calls a "typical" fraction of income spent on rent—rose from 23.6 percent to 25.2 percent. So across the city, rent burdens are creeping ever closer to the 30 percent threshold, beyond which was deemed "unaffordable" in President Ronald Reagan's administration (until the Reagan era the threshold had stood at 25 percent).

But this is a median for all tenants. The loads borne by the poor, who live below the federal poverty threshold, and by the near-poor, with incomes up to twice that level, are in fact far heavier than this figure suggests.

...

[Carnea]

1. Well DUH........ Having lived in Manhattan I can assure you 50% only would be a godsend.

What the report doesn't point out in the clip is the postage stamp sized closets that pass for apartments in New York.

OH and the key is? Don't live there if your going to make less than 6 figures. Unless you are in one of the arts of fashion it simply isn't worth it. You can make 50k a year somewhere else and live in a kingly fashion.

But if you choose to live there making under six-figures expect to use all your money for rent taxes and bodega take-out by the pound. (Discount sushi after 4pm):D

[BurtWorm]

2. New York doesn't want you if you make less than six figures.

It needs you but doesn't want you.

[Kindigger]

6. Off topic but ...

I remember when my sister worked at a MT ski resort. She was provided a rent free condo that overlooked the golf course.

Meanwhile, the housekeepers, laundry workers, kitchen help etc. were down the road sleeping in their cars, because it was too expensive to drive back home every night.

[BurtWorm]

7. Right on topic, actually.

C'est la vie americaine.

[JVS]

23. It wants you to ride a train in really early

[BrklynLib at work]

3. This applies to the outer boroughs as well...as I can testify to.

Then we have to add the cost of the commute to Manhattan to get to work. That can be between $20-$50 per week depending on your mode of public transportation. That adds another $80+ to $100+ per week to your monthly expenses.

[iamahaingttta]

4. Well, yeah, but...

...why would anybody want to live anywhere else?

I'm certainly not complaining about it!

[Fumesucker]

5. But, but.. You don't have to have a car in New York?

Isn't New York a prime example of the sort of environment all the anti-car activists would like to see for the US?

[JHB]

12. Doesn't matter

Affordable housing is in short supply for the whole NY Metropolitan area (hardly a unique situation). All the developers are building "luxury" units that no one without a 6-figure income can afford, whether its condos in Manhattan or McMansions in Melville.

This is another aspect of the increasing wealth inequality and the gutting of the middle class: the well-off can afford to bid prices through the roof, way past what you can manage even by "scrimp, save, and work hard".

[Fumesucker]

24. If you don't have to spend a quarter of your income on your car..

It leaves that much more for housing. :evilgrin:

My point was that one group is telling us to move to places like NYC while another group (those actually living in NYC) is telling us that NYC isn't all that great either.

[devilgrrl]

8. Gee, they should move to a cheaper location like east of the rockies and south of Chicago

I mean really!!! Manhattan? Get a clue?

:sarcasm:

[Carnea]

9. I don't understand this hostility towards affordable housing.

I'm sorry all of us are not starring in Sex in the City. Many are struggling they don't really need to be looked down upon because they can't afford to live in the "right" places. This snobbery is all to common.

Some people simply don't have the skill set to live in high priced liberal urban centers as a result we have to live in fly-over country. It would be nice if our fellow liberals didn't treat this as if it was a fate worse than death.

[devilgrrl]

11. I don't understand your hostility toward the average working citizen.

So cops, teachers and firemen don't have the skills to live in Manhattan huh?

Oooooookay!

:eyes:

[Carnea]

13. The article wasn't about cops fireman and teachers was it.

Here is NYC cops for example....


New York cops salary w/o promotion or overtime

* After 5.5 years $65,382
* After 4.5 years $48,389
* After 3.5 years $45,536
* After 2.5 years $41,696
* After 1.5 years $37,307
* 1st day of Academy $35,881

[stray cat]

18. Unlike the rest of the country - its tough for a family to live on 65,000 near NYC

[Carnea]

22. I don't disagree but five years into any career can be tough..

The article really wasn't talking about Cops for example. They also get rent discounts for living in certain apartments etc. It's not going to make one rich but it isn't poverty.

[JHB]

15. The problem is not the people or snobbery...

...the problem is no one is building places that "us working stiffs" can afford.

[BigDaddy44]

10. Why don't they just institute rent control?

[stray cat]

14. Taxes are also skyrocketing because of increased values - rental properties are going bankrupt

which is also leaving renters on the streets. Of course, slums are a help.

[Cassandra]

20. We have rent stabilization...

(rent control is the older system and being slowly phased out). The real estate lobby is doing it's level best to destroy rent stabilization. I'm stabilized and grateful, as my rent is somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 what it might be, and is at least 30% of my income, but my health insurance costs, 25% of my income, are what really bites. If those got reduced, I could manage pretty well.

[stray cat]

16. Largely true for Westchester and Rockland County as well - 30-60 miles north of NYC

[marmar]

19. I lived in Westchester (New Rochelle) in the mid- to late-90s, and even then.....

.... None of the children of the people who lived there could afford to stay there. They all ended of moving to Putnam County, New Jersey or CT....or out of the NY region altogether.

[JackBeck]

17. A friend of mine works for City Planning.

It's a well-known secret that the whole goal over the next 20 years is to squeeze even the middle class out of Manhattan, leaving real estate affordable only to the rich.

I saw the writing on the wall about 5 years ago when the NYT had an article on how an income of $200,000 was the "new" $100,000.

That was the moment when I stated looking into New Jersey.

[BurtWorm]

21. Why give the developers what they want?

Why not stay in the city and fight these assholes. (Although, frankly, it's looking like the economy is going to be much more effective at whipping their pasty asses.)