AH Challenge Termed Long-Term Affordability

The challenge to affordable housing today is long-term affordability and the connection of housing with financial education and community development, according to a speaker at the 32nd New York Housing Conference and National Housing Conference annual awards luncheon.Event honoree Denise Notice-Scott, managing director of LISC New York City and vice president of New York Equity Fund, made the comments to over 1,500 representatives of the affordable housing industry. Organized to pay tribute to women in housing development, the conference focused on, among other issues, the importance of preserving an ever shrinking affordable housing stock and the availability of AH investment funds due to ever-increasing costs. Especially in expensive markets like New York, the problem is not just a matter of money, Ms. Notice-Scott said. "It's a matter of what policies will help to sort of shift the movement away from this whole cost factor," she said. "If we cannot contain the cost -- the cost of building houses, the cost of land, and the cost of living in the city -- many of the people we have built housing for won't be able to stay here."