Adrianne Shropshire

Subsidies? Toward What End?

There was a great article in the NY Times yesterday on the use of public subsidies to encourage housing development. ACORN released an important report that looks at the use of 421-a subsidies and the relationship of those tax breaks (or lack there of) to the development of affordable housing.

The Mayor's task force, that is in the process of re-evaluating the 421-a program, presents us with an interesting opportunity to debate not just housing subsidies but how public capital in general is used. Subsidizing condos for the affluent doesn't quite seem like the appropriate use of tax payer money. Nor does subsidizing businesses or developments that in turn pay New Yorkers wages that lock them into poverty.

The ACORN report and the Mayor's task force raise critical questions that we should answer and hopefully not in isolation from other critical issues. This question of how public subsidies are used should not happen separate from the question of how do we address the growing poverty in NYC or what do we do about the widening gap between rich and poor in the state. Hopefully the Mayor's poverty initiative crew is in loop on the 421-a conversation.

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Posted at 7:14 AM, Mar 17, 2006 in Community Development | Housing | New York
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