By Paula Katinas and Bill Miller, Senior Reporters

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Anna Baker, a parishioner of Our Lady of Victory Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant who has lived in her neighborhood for decades, knows first-hand New York City’s affordable housing crunch.

“My son is 27 years old, and he still lives at home with me because he can’t afford an apartment,” she lamented. “The rents are out of reach for a lot of people.”

Baker was one of dozens who attended a meeting at Our Lady of Victory on June 22 to discuss the lack of affordable housing in neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant and what to do about it.

Housing is a hot topic these days in rapidly gentrifying communities such as Bedford-Stuyvesant, where rents are rising and residents are struggling to keep up. 

According to StreetEasy.com, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant is $3,150 a month and $3,593 for a two-bedroom. And if you’re looking to buy, you should be ready to pay $1.2 million for a single-family home, according to Redfin.com.

Father Alonzo Cox, the pastor of St. Martin De Porres Parish (which is composed of three churches — Our Lady of Victory, St. Peter Claver, and Holy Rosary), hosted the meeting to gauge parishioners’ interest in becoming more active in an effort by the group East Brooklyn Congregations (EBC) to advocate for new housing in communities like Bedford-Stuyvesant and East New York.

EBC, a non-profit organization of religious leaders and civic activists, was founded in 1980 and works with city and state government and private entities to identify potential sites for new housing and then works to get housing built at those sites. 

Overall, and not just in Bed-Stuy, New York City has a persistent affordable housing shortage, which observers say could throttle the area’s future economy.

In his “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” initiative, Mayor Eric Adams has pointed out that job growth has outpaced housing construction for 40 years because of barriers created by government policies, such as strict zoning ordinances.

Consequently, according to the Regional Plan Association (RPA), New York City has a dwindling stock of housing units — just 1.4%, which has fueled rate hikes on available units.

RPA recently commissioned an analysis by researchers from McKinsey & Company. This study concluded that, if the NYC region doesn’t dramatically accelerate new construction, the area could see a deficit of about 540,000 housing units by 2032.

If that happens, there could be an exodus of workers to other cities where they can find employment and housing. NYC’s retail economy could atrophy as these workers spend their paychecks in their new cities and no one comes to replace them. 

Congress is looking to help. The “Yes in God’s Backyard Act” was introduced in March by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. The bill, if signed into law, would provide technical assistance and grants to faith-based groups to build more housing that is affordable.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sent Congress a letter on July 12, urging passage of the bill and highlighting that Catholic entities are one of the largest private providers of housing, while also noting that “more must be done to respond to the immense suffering faced by poor households, and Catholics can do more.”

According to data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the United States has a shortage of 7.3 million rental homes affordable and available to renters with “extremely low incomes,” which is defined as incomes at or below either the federal poverty guideline of 30% of their area median income, whichever is greater.

Mayor Adams’ City of Yes initiative aims to stanch this economic hemorrhage locally by easing zoning laws that prevent new construction. It would also incentivize the conversion of vacant office property into affordable residential units. 

Under this plan, homeowners could legally add “accessory housing” rentals on their lots, such as basement and garage apartments or detached stand-alone cottages (tiny homes).

City of Yes is now in the public review phase before the City Planning Commission votes on whether to recommend it to the City Council, which is expected to act by the end of 2024. 

In April, the New York Legislature passed a $237 billion fiscal year 2025 budget containing measures favored by Gov. Kathy Hochul to jumpstart housing construction statewide, including New York City. Part of the budget earmarks $500 million to make 15,000 new housing units on state-owned sites.

For example, plans are underway to convert the state-owned Kingsboro Psychiatric Center on Clarkson Avenue in Flatbush into 1,000 affordable housing units. A similar proposal would develop 2,800 units at the state’s Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens.

Projects like these are in the “promise stage,” said Father Edward Mason, a longtime pastor and affordable housing advocate in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn.

“The deal’s been made,” he said. “Now, the second stage is keep the deal.”

Father Mason is the pastor of Mary, Mother of the Church Parish in East New York and dean of Brooklyn Deanery 6. He has also been a longtime leader with EBC, which is now developing affordable housing apartments near the Gateway Center shopping mall in the Spring Creek area of East New York.

Father Mason explained how developers agree to devote 20% of new apartment buildings to affordable housing.

“But there’s an additional question of what affordability means, and affordable for whom,” he noted.

Father Mason further explained that developers are allowed to set rents intended to be affordable using a formula based on the “area median income” (AMI) of wide areas. This method can lump affluent areas of Manhattan in with low-income East New York, where the AMI is around $35,000 a year, and people already spend half their wages on rent.

Father Mason said much more land is needed for new housing construction, but that depends on the “political will” of government officials to either donate it or spend taxpayer dollars to buy it.

“Politicians don’t wake up and say, ‘How can I help the world today?’” he said. “It’s ‘Who’s going to be forcing me to help the world today.’”

Father Bill Smith, the retired former pastor of St. Charles Borromeo in Brooklyn Heights who now lives at Our Lady of Victory, said it’s important to organize residents so that they speak with one voice.

If the residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant band together with EBC, it could yield positive results. 

“If we play our cards right,” Father Smith said, “we get 650 units.”