UWS Candidate Unveils Housing Plan To Address Area Homelessness

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Sara Lind, a candidate for City Council in the Upper West Side's District 6, released a proposed rezoning plan on Thursday to address a topic that has divided the neighborhood in the past couple of months: the homelessness crisis.

Lind released a "Housing First" plan for the neighborhood that would rezone blocks containing no residential housing or culturally significant structures to build more affordable housing.

Currently, the proposed rezoning areas allow only construction for commercial or "super tall condominium towers with no affordability requirements."

The first area of focus is in the upper 50's between 10th Avenue and the Hudson River, which is currently zoned exclusively for commercial use. The second section of blocks is bound by West 66th and 64th Streets on West End Avenue and Riverside Boulevard, which is presently solely zoned for "super tall condominium towers," according to Lind.

The rezoning plan would allow the two areas to house as many as 8,769 new rental homes, of which 1,754 would be permanently affordable to households making around $41,000 a year.

You can check out a map of the potential development sites on a Medium post from Lind.

"Many politicians in districts like mine have been afraid to create affordable housing because they think their wealthy constituents will oppose it," Lind said in a news release. "I don't think that gives our community enough credit. To even make a dent in the alarming number of housing insecure New Yorkers, every neighborhood has to do their part."

Council Member Helen Rosenthal currently holds the office that Lind is running for. She has been a central figure in the conversation around the homeless population that was temporarily moved into the Upper West Side in the past few months.

Specifically, the nearly 300 men moved into the Lucerne hotel at the end of July created a major divide within the neighborhood. The attention it garnered on the Upper West Side makes it an essential topic for anybody running for local office.

Here is a full break down of Lind's plan to address homelessness in the community:

• Rezone blocks that include almost two dozen potential development sites which contain no residential units or culturally significant structures in the southern portion of District 6 in order to trigger the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing requirements, specifically the Deep Affordability Option, with New Yorkers experiencing or at risk of homelessness receiving priority for the affordable units.
• Work with a group of community stakeholders to form a Community Land Trust to shape the contours of the rezoning plan and manage the affordable portions of the new buildings to ensure the homes are permanently affordable, well managed, and hold developers accountable to live up to all of their obligations.
• Address mental health and addiction by including permanent supportive housing that helps people heal and achieve independence.
• Mandate that the rezoning be contextual, limiting the height of new buildings to ensure they are not out of context with what’s around them, and require implementation of the infrastructure we need now - like new schools and a 57th Street busway - and going forward, like green roofs and other sustainable, energy saving measures.
• Work with Amsterdam Houses to ensure capital needs are funded as part of the rezoning process.
• Create over 8,500 new homes through the rezoning, requiring at least 20% of those homes - over 1,700 - be permanently affordable for households earning an average of 40% of Area Median Income.
• Provide vouchers to help bridge the gap for applicants among our homeless neighbors who earn too little to qualify for deeply affordable units.