Manhattan: I was thrilled to read about the 165 Broome St. affordable housing project. I’m glad we enabled the creation of 196 new units when we need to build fast to support our growing population.
However, I noticed a disparity that concerns me. The average rent for a one-bedroom at the Broome St. property is $1,568, with most units going for $1,845-$2,145 per month.
In contrast, I can only charge $1,100-$1,400 per month for my one-bedroom units due to rent stabilization. If $2,145 is considered affordable, why am I restricted to significantly lower rents? Even the average one-unit rent of $1,568 is much higher than what I’m allowed to charge. Moreover, I expected that higher rents would correlate with higher property taxes.
However, upon reviewing the NYC Department of Finance data, I found that my property tax is 12 times higher on a per-unit basis. They pay $1,224 per year per unit, while I pay $17,500 per year per unit. Since not all units are created equal, we should look at it by cost per room: I’m paying $5,800 per year per room in property tax, while Broome St.
pays $480 per year per room. That’s still an 11.6 times higher tax for my 1890s brownstone than their modern 2024 luxury complex.
How can we be expected to charge less while also paying more to the city? How can small housing providers achieve similar tax breaks? Affordable rents are impossible for regular housing providers to offer under the current system. If we want rents to come down, we need to b.