How Your Tax Dollars Are Wasted To Build Luxury Apartments

(Gothamist) “Subsidize our house, not the penthouse!” protesters chanted last month outside One57, the luxury skyscraper that's the second-tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere and the most expensive in New York. “We’re basically subsidizing luxury buildings and giving away money to developers who can afford to build,” said Maritza Silva-Farrell, coordinator of the Real Affordability for All campaign, who was one of the demonstrators standing next to the glass-bound monolith.

The protest was part of a campaign by tenant and housing activists to end the 421-a program, a $1.1 billion-a-year tax break for apartment construction that largely goes to luxury buildings, including One57.

With both the 421-a program and the state's rent stabilization laws set to expire on June 15, the controversial initiative may become a bargaining chip in the fight for more affordable housing.

“It has been proven not to build the affordable housing that we need in our communities, so we want it to end," Silva-Farrell says.

The subsidy's use has grown prodigiously over the last decade. Last year, 421-a subsidized more than 70,000 new apartments, more than three times as many as it did during the pre-recession real-estate boom, according to a recent Association for Neighborhood Housing Development report. ....................(more)

http://gothamist.com/2015/03/18/how_can_we_stop_luxury_developers_f.php