Fast forward twenty years from today. Pathways to healthy, sustainable, affordable homeownership have been cleared for New York’s working families, whether they are seeking to buy or to stay in their homes. Communities of color have access to fair lending for homeownership, and the racial wealth gap has been reduced significantly. Seniors have the resources they need to age in their communities, and young New Yorkers see homeownership as attainable. Our older housing stock has been retrofitted to confront the challenges posed by climate change. Neighborhoods that were once subjected to racial discrimination through redlining, disinvestment, and predatory lending are now free of the boom-and-bust cycle of abandonment, property speculation, gentrification, and displacement. Families are no longer at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure, and those looking to buy have affordable homeownership opportunities available to them. Through housing policy, historical injustices have been overcome, and our city has become more inclusive and equitable.
This blueprint outlines the vision we have for the future: where homeownership is a truly viable choice for working New Yorkers, where intergenerational prosperity is possible for low- and moderate-income families, and where new models of shared equity thrive. But in 2019, an affordability crisis, rising inequality, and the impacts of longstanding discriminatory policies continue to put affordable homeownership out of reach for most New York families. Tens of thousands of homeowners remain vulnerable to financial shocks, the increasing costs of flood insurance, scammers, and deteriorating housing conditions. Meanwhile, fewer New Yorkers are able to become homeowners due to rising prices, increased investor purchases, and the lack of affordable options. The decisions that policymakers make today will affect the shape and diversity of the city for the next decade.
Advancing these goals will require the concerted efforts of many different partners, from community-based organizations to CDFIs to funders and financial institutions to community leaders and elected officials. We will need strong partnerships as well as organizing, analysis and advocacy to achieve these goals, and this is where you come in! Join us as we seek to make this vision a reality.