Good evening. My name is Peggy Earisman and I am the project director of Legal Services for New York City’s Manhattan office. I am testifying on behalf of the low income clients of my office as well as on behalf of the Rebuild Coalition: Spotlight on the Poor. This coalition, comprised of 30 community based organizations, was formed to ensure that low-income communities, particularly Chinatown and the Lower East Side, have a voice in the rebuilding process.
Following the September 11th attacks, Congress provided assistance to the City of New York to help rebuild the City and particularly downtown Manhattan. One form of such assistance is Liberty Bonds. In their public statements and literature, both the State and City have asserted that the purpose of Liberty Bonds is to contribute to the City’s revitalization and long-term economic health and to “fulfill the vision of Manhattan as a 24/7, mixed-use, diversified community.”
The use of $48 million dollars in Liberty Bond proceeds to create 86 luxury units in downtown Manhattan and 5 “affordable” units (affordable only in the sense that families making $94,000 can live there) is not only a gross insult to the folks on the Lower East Side and Chinatown who lost jobs or need housing after September 11th, the creation of luxury housing does not lead to the long term economic health of the city nor does it lead to a diversified community. Instead it exacerbates the pressure for low income and working class people to move out of a city no longer affordable for them to reside in.
Chinatown and the Lower East Side were in the midst of a housing crisis even prior to the September 11th attacks. According to the U.S. Census Bureau Housing and Vacancy Survey, the vacancy rate for Chinatown and the Lower East Side in 1999 was only 1.4%. Gentrification threatened large-scale displacement of low- income tenants as landlords converted tenement buildings into luxury housing and single-room-occupancy structures into upscale hotels and youth hostels. Throughout the city, rents increased 33% between 1998 and 2001 while incomes rose only 3%. The citywide waiting list for public housing contained almost 150,000 households; the waiting list for Section 8 was closed for years. One out of every four households in the City was paying more than 50% of their income for rent.
Prior to September 11th, residents of Community Board 3 (14th Street south to the Brooklyn Bridge and from the Bowery east to the East River) already faced serious problems of poverty, lack of education and inadequate language skills. Twenty-eight percent of people living in this community board received public assistance, SSI and/or Medicaid.
The September 11th attacks devastated these communities and further exacerbated the existing housing crisis. An estimated 23% of the working population of Chinatown was laid off in the three months following September 11th. Five months after September 11th, 40 garment factories had permanently closed. According to the Rebuild Chinatown Initiative survey by Asian Americans for Equality one year after the attacks, 45% of the respondents reported income of less than $25,000 per year. In fact, only about 2% of the Chinatown respondents to that survey could afford to live in this new proposed Liberty Bond project. The long term economic health and revitalization of Chinatown will not be assisted by this luxury housing.
Meanwhile, Lower East Side residents also face severe post-9/11 problems such facing eviction for nonpayment of rent, the loss of income and jobs and post-traumatic stress syndrome. Social service groups and housing organizations have reported a dramatic increase in the number of clients seeking housing and other assistance since September 11th. The loss of income of tenants in the Lower East Side combined with the already existing gentrification pressures has placed thousands of people at risk of homelessness.
Finally, to further exacerbate the situation, much of the existing subsidized low-income and moderate income housing in the downtown, Chinatown and Lower East Side areas is threatened because of expiring financing agreements, Section 8 contracts and rental restrictions.
At a recent Community Forum sponsored by the Rebuild Coalition, an elderly Asian woman testified to having to share a small apartment with five other adults. She pays $400.00 a month for a “room” in this illegally subdivided apartment because she cannot find another affordable place to live. She cannot get out of bed or eat when she wants because of the conditions in the apartment.
Legal Services for New York City has represented many people who lost their jobs after September 11th and many people facing eviction after September 11th. These low-income working people represented by legal services include a carpenter on the roof of a building at Duane Street when the buildings collapsed, messengers, a ticket agent for Alitalia Airlines, a worker at Windows on the World, a disabled veteran who sold hats and gloves on the sidewalks of Lower Broadway, a flight attendant, an administrative assistant, cleaning women at the World Trade Center, cafeteria workers, cooks, maintenance workers, owners of small businesses downtown or on the Lower East Side, security guards at the World Trade Center, Century 21 workers and master seamstresses. These people reflect a cross section of the thousands of people who lost their jobs after September 11th. Sixty percent of the jobs lost were in low-wage occupations including garment workers, restaurant workers, and maintenance workers. These are the economic victims of September 11th—none of whom will be able to afford to live in the proposed Liberty Bond project.
The use of Liberty Bonds to subsidize luxury housing is simply unconscionable when elderly residents of Chinatown have to share illegally subdivided apartments, the number of homeless people is increasing and when the very people who lost their jobs after September 11th are facing eviction. We must use scarce public resources to help those suffering, not wealthy residents and big developers. The lack of affordable housing limits New York City’s ability to expand its economic base by attracting new industries. This project does not increase the economic vitality and health of the city. In fact, the scarcity of affordable housing jeopardizes New York City’s economic growth and destroys the diversity and mix of incomes which make this City great. We ask the New York State Housing Finance Agency to reject this project and use Liberty Bonds for housing affordable to all New Yorkers, including the poor.
Respectfully submitted,
Peggy Earisman
Interim Project Director
LSNY-Manhattan on behalf of
Rebuild with a Spotlight on the Poor Coalition