A nonprofit land bank could help New York City develop affordable-housing units on 1,100 vacant properties, said city Comptroller Scott Stringer.
According to his
"When the city owns property, we get to call the shots about how land is developed and for whom, which is why these properties are so valuable," Stringer said Feb. 18 at an East Harlem news conference.
The audit examined city-owned vacant properties managed by the Housing and Preservation Department and other city agencies from June 2014 through September 2015. It comes as the city has lost more than 400,000 apartments renting for $1,000 or less and more than half of New Yorkers spend more than one-third of their income on rent, Stringer said.
Land banks are government-created nonprofit corporations designed to convert tax-delinquent and vacant properties into affordable housing or other productive uses. Stringer cited the uses of these banks in Buffalo, Syracuse, Cleveland and St. Louis.
City Councilman Brad Lander plans to resubmit legislation authorizing the land bank. According to Stringer, Lander's bill has nine additional sponsors. Stringer also wants to begin working with the Empire State Development Corp. to prepare a land bank application.
Stringer would also seed the land bank by transferring vacant, city-owned properties and/or redirecting a portion of outstanding tax liens to the land bank, rather than to the existing trust. The bank, he said, could manage foreclosure of tax-delinquent properties that are either vacant or underused to create an affordable-housing pipeline.
