One way that NYC is hurt by suburbs' failure to meet fair share of regional housing need

April 18, 2016 — Suburban failure to meet a fair share of regional housing need is one of the regions that the New York City metropolitan area is one of the most segregated major metros in the United States. Even less discussed is that failure also exacts a direct cost to New York City in terms of having to try to provide a disproportionate amount of lower-income housing (as well as a variety of increased social service costs).

ADC examined household income for New York City households and for households in the five surrounding suburban counties: Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam. The source of the data was the 2010 to 2014 5-year American Community Survey.

In New York City, 31.75 percent of households earned less than $30,000/year. In the five surrounding suburbs, by constrast, the percentage of such households was only 15.88 percent (half that of the city).

At the other end of the income spectrum, we have the mirror image. 16.79 percent of New York City households earned more than $125,000/year.  In the five surrounding suburbs, 34.25 percent of households had earnings above $125,000 (double that of the city).

The need for a regional approach to affordable housing could not be more clear.

And the fact that New York City has been injured (in both a practical and a legal sense) by the failure of suburban counties and their municipalities to affirmatively further fair housing or to abandon exlusionary zoning violative of the Fair Housing Act could not be more clear either.