Who Benefits From Housing Boom?

Folks should get used to thousands of new residents coming into New Haven. They will be coming whether we build the new housing or not.

Don't build the tens of thousands of new luxury units, and people who would otherwise rent them instead will be pushing out low income residents out of their homes.

Build enough new units to meet demand and the city will actually become more affordable.

Anonymous, I agree with your basic point. There are two ways to address the lack of affordable housing in New Haven, build more units and/or increase wages for low income households. Much as I would like to see the latter happen, I fear that it is unlikely. But the benefits of gentrification primarily flow to non-poor households while its costs (in the form of rising remts in gentrifying neighborhoods) are primarily borne by low- and moderate income households.

Like you, I think the new developments are a net positive for the city's and should be encouraged. But they are likely to have negative, albeit indirect, effects for a substantial minority of the city's residents.

Anonymous,

Rents never go down.
Be Honest, please.

New Haven center needs MUCH more housing!!!


Central New Haven = YALE bubble. Anyone who thinks otherwise is in full denial.

If you live in lower East Rock, downtown or Wooster Square.... Chances are you're affiliated with Yale. If not... You're comfortable knowing that 80% of the people you live around are transient Yalies that will most likely be gone from the city in three years. That doesn't give them enough time to invest fully into our community and they're paying a premium to for convenience and taking a spot of a true local in one of New Haven's idea neighborhoods.

Don't get me wrong, I love what the university offers me. Museums, diverse and amazing people from all across the world...We benefit IMMENSLY from the university. The sad truth is...many of the transplants look at the local population as ENTITLED neusances to their everyday life. Many aquaintences have talked smack about this town to me,... Smack about the homeless and panhandlers,... the overall population. They've compared us to NYC, Boston, Austin TX and laughed.

They obviously apologize when I defend the city, defend my community... But the damage is done. If you're living in downtown sprawl, are 30 or younger, and do not have a countdown to the graduation/ intern year ending.... You're VERY aware of this kind of situation.

What all of this housing going up will do is provide more potential for long-term New Haven-centric people to live within the city core. We need more people that care about the city actually LIVING......in the city! We can't drive in from Hamsen, the Guilfords and Oxfords or further and get the same effect as walking to the green from your front door.

If housing continues at the rate it is going,... We may just provide a downtown community beyond the Yale bubble. If not? (Jumps on the Yale shuttle, avoids eye contact)

TNNH,

Hate so say it, but you are sounding like the entitled one here.....and now you are giving us a snow job before the first winter storm..

Bradley: No. On the housing side, the goal should be to build as many units as possible for anyone, especially for the wealthy. That will reduce upward pressure on (and competition for) the existing, and future, units that lower income families can afford. Limiting total number of units produced in order to produce more "affordable" units (or more parking spaces) is just a way to artificially make the rest of the units more expensive by reducing the maximum possible supply and encouraging existing properties to convert into luxury units. We should build as many high end units as possible because the luxury housing units of today become the affordable units of tomorrow.

Of course, there are other ways to boost affordability in general. Higher wages, better jobs, tax policies that favor working families instead of the upper middle class and rich, subsidized child care, better transportation networks. Eliminating parking requirements (I.e. Subsidies for drivers- we require housing for cars, but not for people) and reforming zoning so that developers could increase density would also help. Currently, New Haven requires parking and doesn't allow very high density which is a great way to continue to hurt poor families.

I would like to commend the participants in the broadcast for their thoughtful and at times funny conversation. But Paul and Joe, you need to let Babs get in a word edgewise!

Tnnh, I live in lower East Rock but am not affiliated with Yale, and most of my immediate neighbors also are not. I know a fair number of Yale grad students and staff. I've noticed that East Rock has lost its lock on these folks. Some are living downtown or in Wooster Square, as you note. But a growing number are living in Dwight and in the Mansfield Street area.

Bill, average rents have certainly gone up in New Haven and elsewhere. But rents in individual buildings tend to go down as they age unless they are well-maintained. The filtering process that Anonymous describes takes years, but does happen. Ironically, and sadly, middle income renters in East Rock and similar neighborhoods are likely to benefit from the housing boom long before poorer tenants elsewhere.

You guys act like this is something other than creating a huge medically oriented campus right in the middle of downtown....the people I know that work in that industry have little time to do much else than work and sleep.....

Bradley,

You are partially correct, though. Over time, all building rents approach zero, because housing stock doesn't have an unlimited lifetime.

In the meantime, there is plenty of government assistance in these 'declining' markets that keep rents unnaturally inflated...

Bill,

"Hate so say it, but you are sounding like the entitled one here…..and now you are giving us a snow job before the first winter storm.."

I definitely have privilege they others in town do not. I wouldn't say I'm entitled, though. I work hard for my money and feel that I do everything I can to stay positive and solution-focused. This town isn't as large as it once was and I feel that development, especially mixed use, in the downtown's underutilized properties should come as quick as possible.

There are lots in the works and I am excited. My earlier comment was to state the obvious,... We are battling a different breed of gentrification than most other towns... It's academic centric,... Something those without opportunity cannot compete with.

More housing in the core please, New Haven, before Bradley's point comes to full fruition and the Dixwell and Dwight area spills over the gentrifying population into Newhallville, Interior Fair Haven and tribe.

Here is the problem, TNNH,

(and I am going cross-thread, here)

You stated in the story about 'the kid with stolen car', that you "just want help others to have the opportunity to enjoy New Haven like you do."

That is a pretty arrogant statement, and dismissive of the socio-economic diversity in our small city.

While you claim that you are not entitled monetarily, I would counter that you are entitled mentally...

Classy....

Just listened to the podcast, Paul.

A really interesting, fun, informative discussion.....

One day BS vs. TNNH!!!!!

Anonymous, we actually agree for the most part. The filtering process you describe does take place, but it takes a long time. The impact of the new developments on rents will also be affected by the proportion of units that are rented by people who currently don't live in New Haven and the number of existing units that are removed from the market as the new units come online. In an extreme and implausible case, if all of the new units were rented by suburbanites attracted to New Haven, there would be no long-term reduction in rents. More plausibly, the housing boom will induce the owners of some small buildings to convert them back to single family (this is already happening to a limited extent in East Rock).

The parking requirements of the zoning ordinance do increase the costs of housing and are excessive IMO. But the city is to some extent a democracy and these provisions do reflect popular preferences. I don't believe I have ever seen you at a BZA hearing. If you get the chance you should go and see the neighbors' response when an applicant seeks a variance from the parking requirements. The negative reaction is pretty much the same, whether the development is in a poor or middle class neighborhood.

Bill, I also agree that Section 8 and similar programs put upward pressure on rents (in effect it is an income effect on demand). On the other hand, the creation or renovation of traditional public housing units decreases private market rents by decreasing demand for private units.

I'm not here to become a symbol of the population moving into New Haven.

Although I prefer to remain sexually, racially, and financially hidden...

Know that I work in town with a job that you can only get with a masters degree. While I was getting a masters I worked as a bartender and a server in the food industry, in the board of education in an array of positions and volunteer on many boards.

Nothing else matters. I have friends across the socioeconomic fan and feel that my 25-35 age range has provided me with an interesting perspective on this city that many older people just won't see.

I'm not here to battle you but...Can you answer my questions from the other thread?

Going to TNNH's recent comment, I think it would be useful to have a conversation that focuses on generational aspects of development in the city. I'm an oldish (61) guy who has lived in New Haven longer than some of the commentators have been alive. But I have the good fortune of having a fair number of 20-something friends. I think there are real generational differences in attitudes towards cities, housing, and transportation. But we are all grown-ups and could actually learn something from one another.