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Op-Ed By Keith Fairey The Bronx is back. After the devastating losses of the 1970s, in which close to one million people left New York, including more than 200,000 from the south Bronx alone, the borough has once again become a community of choice for New Yorkers. Currently home to 1.3 million people in 490,000 homes, the Bronx is in the midst of a wave of new economic development. National chains, including Old Navy, Staples, and Barnes & Noble, have opened retail stores in the Bronx; Gristede's opened its first supermarket in the Bronx last year; and the Fulton Fish Market is slated to move to Hunts Point in 2005. The rise in economic investment has been accompanied by an increase in housing prices, as more middle-income households relocate to the Bronx from other boroughs with even stronger housing markets. Higher housing prices, however, have made housing increasingly unaffordable for many of the borough's existing residents. The median income for the Bronx is $27,000, less than 65 percent of the $42,000 median for New York City as a whole. As prices continue to rise in the Bronx, a critical lack of affordable housing threatens to undermine the borough's social and economic progress. Everyone agrees that New York City must increase its housing supply -- especially its supply of housing affordable to working, low-income and homeless families. The signs of the city's housing crisis are undeniable. Between 1990 and 2000, the official population of New York City grew by 686,000, but only 81,000 new housing units were built. Faced with this shortfall, families have turned to housing of last resort. More than 150,000 illegal and unregulated apartments were built from 1990 and 2000. Illegal apartments accounted for close to half of all construction in the Bronx in the 1990s. More than 25,000 families now live doubled up, in overcrowded and often unsanitary conditions. Far too many families do not have a home at all. More than 38,000 people in the city are homeless and spend the night in homeless shelters. This includes 8,200 families with almost 17,000 children. Why should the least fortunate and most vulnerable New Yorkers -- our children, the elderly, the disabled and the very poor -- continue to live in squalor or have no home at all? One year ago, Mayor Bloomberg announced the most significant housing initiative for New York City since the 1980s. The mayor's "New Housing Marketplace" plan provides a crucial first step to address the city's critical lack of affordable housing. Innovative financing will produce a $3 billion investment over five years to create and preserve 65,000 units of affordable housing. The challenge will be to move forward with the mayor's initiative and also to lay the groundwork for more affordable housing development that will solve the city's housing problem. Most experts agree that New York needs at least 200,000 more housing units over the next 10 years. As the city's economic and budget situation improve, we must expand the scope of the mayor's initiative to reach the goals of the Housing First! plan. Housing First! -- an unprecedented coalition of community, business, civic, labor and religious organizations -- has called for a 10-year, $10 billion commitment to build and preserve more than 185,000 homes. More than 200 organizations have united behind this goal. The challenge of housing a vibrant, growing city is formidable, but so are our resources. The Bronx and New York City as a whole contains a wealth of expertise to build new homes -- neighborhood-based community development corporations, government agencies and private developers. Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. has a taken a leadership role, contributing millions of dollars for the development of affordable housing in the Bronx and leveraging millions more. The people of the Bronx care about affordable housing, and public officials are beginning to take notice. According to a recent survey by the National Association of Realtors, 76 percent of New Yorkers say affordable housing is an important issue for them when they vote on Election Day. A sustained and comprehensive effort by New York City's people and public officials is essential to ensuring that everyone in the Bronx and all New Yorkers have a simple, decent, affordable place to call home. Keith Fairey, a Norwood resident, is vice president for Community Development at the Mount Hope Housing Company and serves as the Bronx Chapter Board chair for Habitat for Humanity -- New York City.
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