Markeshia Ricks Photo
Groundbreaking for Gold St. project with 30 percent affordable housing.
(Opinion) Justin Elicker’s landslide victory ensures that he will enter the mayor’s office with a clear mandate for change. To bring about that change, Elicker has begun soliciting suggestions, which can be submitted here.
Here’s one: Inclusionary zoning won’t fix New Haven’s housing affordability crisis.
Throughout his campaign, Elicker positioned inclusionary zoning — the practice of requiring large developers to reserve a percentage of their new units as “affordable” housing — at the center of his affordable housing platform. He has promised that the policy will help capture some of the value created by New Haven’s influx of large luxury developments.
Inclusionary zoning works on the campaign trail because it’s easy to grasp and makes intuitive sense. Who wouldn’t want to create new, income-integrated affordable housing at little to no cost to the city?
So what’s my issue with Mayor-Elect Elicker’s inclusionary zoning policy? The answer lies in its fundamental logic.
By nature, inclusionary zoning is an endorsement of the status quo. It is a tacit acknowledgment that the only way to build affordable housing is by encouraging large-scale, market-rate developments. It submits to the inevitability of rich real estate investors rather than trusting the people of New Haven — who are affected the most by housing policy — with power.
We can’t solve a crisis created and perpetuated by large real estate developers with policies that further entrench their importance to the city. To solve the housing affordability crisis, Mayor-Elect Elicker must strike at the root of the problem, and use his mandate to shift economic power to low-income communities.
Paul Bass Photo
Elicker transition member Gage Frank and intern Francesco Spirli inside the transition team office at 200 Orange St.
Rather than building his affordable housing policy around large developments, Mr. Elicker should embrace and encourage local, small-scale developers. Homeownership is the best way to build generational wealth, and local landlords are more attentive and lenient on their tenants.
Rather than justifying tax breaks and taxpayer-funded incentives going to large developments, Mr. Elicker should funnel resources into a New Haven Community Land Trust. Community Land Trusts (CLTs) acquire land and agree to long-term lease agreements with prospective homeowners. Because they are run by community members, and because the land is never sold — just leased — CLTs ensure a steady supply of affordable housing. CLTs nation-wide — like in Burlington, Vermont — have provided consistently affordable housing to thousands of residents for decades.
Rather than supporting the expansion of large housing developments which often mistreat low-income residents, Mayor-elect Elicker should stand with tenants. He should actively help tenants form tenants unions, which can collectively bargain and fight for better living conditions. He should bring activists and organizers to the table to write a tenants bill of rights and a homeless person’s bill of rights. He should enact policy — like elections for city-planning officials and community land banking — which shift the balance of power to low-income communities.
Shifting real economic power to low-income communities also acts as a shield against displacement. Public service improvements — like better transit or new parks — which raise land values often lead to outside investment and eventually, gentrification. But if communities own the land, they will have every opportunity to capture the value of public improvements for themselves.
Throughout his campaign, Mayor-elect Elicker promised to stand behind every neighborhood in New Haven. If he embraces policy that endorses entrenched real-estate developers instead of shifting power to New Haven’s low-income communities, he will have failed to fulfill that promise.
Mayor-Elect Elicker, you have a mandate. You have the ability to strike at the roots of power inequity, at the roots of entrenched capital, and move the city in a more equitable direction. Embracing policies like inclusionary zoning, which bolster the status quo, will fail to bring about that necessary change.
But by standing up to the real-estate speculators and the massive, out-of-town development conglomerates, you can set in motion a titanic value shift. By embracing policies which put power back in the hands of the people, you can send a powerful message: New Haven is not for sale.
New Haven can be — and should be — for the people and by the people.
Harry Zehner is a lifelong New Haven resident who is currently studying at the University of Connecticut.
Previous story on suggestions for the next mayoral administration:
• Elicker Seeks Ideas; Here Are Eight
Excellent suggestions! As the good man 3/5 has said before, HOME RUN!!