Liberty
Bond Housing Coalition Urges Mayor Bloomberg To Use WTC Housing Resources to
Build Affordable Housing
For Immediate Release
Contact Vic Bach (CSS) 212.614.5492 cell 718.986.8779 or
Stephanie Greenwood (Good Jobs New York) 212.414.9394 x 2
cell 973.951.9243
December 9, 2002 – New York, NY Housing
advocates and Lower Manhattan residents gathered on the steps of City Hall at
9:15 am to urge Mayor Bloomberg to allocate tax-exempt Liberty Bonds to finance
mixed-income housing as part of the rebuilding effort. The rally was followed at
10:00 am by the City Council’s first public hearing on the housing portion of
the Liberty Bonds. In anticipation of Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement of an
affordable housing plan, the City Council heard testimony from the Liberty Bond
Housing Coalition and other concerned organizations about how to best use these
scarce, publicly subsidized capital resources set aside for housing development.
“More and
more New Yorkers are feeling the brunt of rising rents and the shortage of
affordable housing. We urge Mayor
Bloomberg to put forward a strategic plan to use Liberty Bonds as an opportunity
to develop the kind of housing all New Yorkers can be proud of—housing that
excludes no one regardless of income,” said David R. Jones, President and CEO
of the Community Service Society.
As part of the $21.5 billion in Federal resources to help
New York City recover from the attacks on the World Trade Center, Governor
Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg can each allocate $800 million in tax-exempt Liberty
Bonds to finance rental housing development in Lower Manhattan.
The Mayor has not yet released a plan for the allocation of
his portion. The Liberty Bond
Housing Coalition—a group of advocacy and community organizations—has
introduced a plan demonstrating how these unique, publicly-subsidized capital
resources can be used for mixed-income housing in Lower Manhattan. The Coalition first formed in opposition to Governor
Pataki’s allocation of $340
million for 3 luxury rental developments, providing no apartments for low-income
families and only 5% of the units affordable to households earning between
$70,000 to $94,000 a year.
“The Governor set a disastrous precedent by excluding the
majority of New Yorkers in his choice of Liberty Bond projects.
We implore the Mayor to use this opportunity to create housing for those
whose lives were greatly impacted by September 11th such as
firefighters, police office, EMS workers and teachers,” said Ron Shiffman,
Executive Director of the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental
Development.
The Coalition applauds the City Council for its commitment to a just allocation of these resources and for working to help put forward a creative plan to use Liberty Bonds to produce housing affordable to the majority of New Yorkers.
Visit www.reconstructionwatch.net to learn more about Liberty Bonds and the Liberty Bond Housing Coalition.
# # #