'Rent bubble' squeezes working class in Lower Hudson Valley

Nearly 100 people lined up outside of White Plains Public Library on a recent sizzling afternoon, waiting for hours to receive free food from a mobile pantry run by the Food Bank for Westchester.

"This is my food every day. Every time the truck comes, I got to go," said Shayana White, who was there to receive bags of food, including fresh produce, meat and bread. "There're a whole bunch of people who are in my situation."

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White, 52, of White Plains, said she relies on the Food Bank because a majority of her income goes toward rent. She's in a wheelchair and lives off her monthly disability benefit of about $1,500. The monthly rent for her studio apartment was $570 when she moved in three decades ago, but it has since gone up to almost $1,000, she said.

"Every two years, it goes up by $35 or $40," she said. "I can't afford cable. I can't afford to go to the doctor because I can't afford a co-pay."

White is not alone in feeling the financial squeeze because of skyrocketing rents.

According to Apartment List's Census data analysis from 1960 to 2014, inflation-adjusted rents have risen by 64 percent nationwide, while household incomes only increased by 18 percent. The gap sharply widened in the decade from 2000 to 2010 when household incomes actually fell by 7 percent while rents rose by 12 percent, according to the analysis.

The trend's impact has been felt in many corners of the Lower Hudson Valley, where, ironically, thousands of luxury rental apartments are under construction. Working-class renters — from low-income families to young professionals with student loans to repay — struggle to make ends meet because of high costs of keeping a roof over their heads. Their rents continue to rise, while their wages stagnate.

'Rent bubble'

Jeff Meyer of Tuckahoe, who volunteers for the Food Bank, has seen renters' struggle. In a recent letter to The Journal News/lohud, he noted that many of the Food Bank's clients work full time but are still having a tough time putting food on the table.

"One of the hardships I hear about repeatedly is what I call the 'rent bubble:' People who pay 75 percent of their income or more for rent," Meyer said. "This leaves very little to survive on."

People whose incomes are in the lower-middle bracket, or up to $41,186 a year, have been especially hit hard by rising rents, according to the Apartment List analysis.

To mitigate the rent burden, George Pavel, 27, a digital marketing manager for a data recovery firm in Port Chester, shares a three-bedroom apartment in downtown Nyack with two other people. With his $42,000-a-year salary, he can't afford his own apartment while paying back his student loans, he said.

"I have a girlfriend and, eventually, we want to get a one-bedroom by ourselves. That is a goal in a long term," Pavel said. "But right now, it’s kind of hard. Some single-bedroom apartments in Nyack can go (for) about $1,600, and we are not talking about a very big space."

Pavel, who grew up in New City, considers himself luckier than other renters because a monthly payment for his room is $725 plus utilities, less than what his peers pay, he said. Though his room is small — about 100 square feet, he has everything he needs, he said.

"A lot of other people are not that lucky," he said.

Fearing that working-class residents may eventually get pushed out of the village because of rising rents, he and his friends recently formed the Nyack Renters Union.

"Most of the members are young people who just graduated, in their 20s or early 30s. They can't afford to stay here," Pavel said. "They've been living here for their whole lives. Just because they don't own a house doesn't mean they aren't part of the community."

Widening gap

The widening disparity between rent and income growth in the Hudson Valley became clear in the recent analysis by Hudson Valley Pattern For Progress. The Newburgh-based nonprofit examined the rent and income study called "Out of Reach," which was compiled by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, focusing on this region.

From 2012 to 2017, renters' hourly wages in Westchester and Putnam counties have increased by 3 percent and 2 percent respectively, while hourly wages in Rockland decreased by 2 percent, according to the study.

Meanwhile, the fair-market rents of a two-bedroom apartment in the same period — which are estimated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — have gone up by 8 percent in Westchester and 15 percent in Rockland and Putnam.

Based on the conventional 30-percent benchmark, which is to keep your housing costs below 30 percent of your income, a renter would have to earn $32.81 per hour, or 1.8 times more than Westchester's renter wage of $18.25, to comfortably afford a fair-market-rate two-bedroom unit, which is priced at $1,706.

A renter in Rockland or Putnam would have to earn $31.48 per hour — or 2.65 times more than a renter wage of $11.90 in Rockland, and 3.1 times more than a renter wage of $10.17 in Putnam — to afford a fair-market-rate two-bedroom that costs $1,637 in both counties.

The relevance of the 30-percent rule has been debated, but one thing that's certain is that renters are forced to dedicate a much bigger portion of their income to keep their apartments compared to years ago.

Options needed

Joseph Czajka, senior vice president of Hudson Valley Pattern For Progress who conducted the local analysis, said living far away from workplaces to find affordable apartments can't be a solution because it increases the cost of commuting.

"What we need is more affordable housing located near your employment centers, or near transportation centers, so people aren't necessarily using (an) automobile to drive 45 minutes to one hour to get to work," Czajka said.

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As the trend of transit-oriented development takes off in the region, thousands of rental apartments are sprouting up around train stations in the Lower Hudson Valley.

But those units are nowhere near affordable. For example, at The Castle in Port Chester, the lowest-priced unit as of mid-August was a 732-square-foot one-bedroom available for $2,272 a month, according to the new complex's website. At Quarry Place in Tuckahoe, the lowest-priced apartment is a 632-square-foot one-bedroom priced monthly at $2,240 plus additional fees for amenities. In Yonkers, the River Tides at Greystone opened in May with monthly rents starting at $1,925 for a studio.

Some local municipalities have negotiated with private apartment developers to set aside a portion of their new units as affordable housing, and that's a step in the right direction, Czajka said.

Pavel said his Nyack group opposes TZ Vista, a proposal to build a multi-story, 128-unit residential complex on 6.68 acres on the Hudson River, because such plans exacerbate the housing affordability issues in the village.

"In Nyack, there are a lot of luxury homes and condominiums, and not enough affordable houses for working families," he said, adding that he wanted village officials to tackle the problem. "This is an issue worth addressing. There's a lot of people who need help."

The government doesn't have control over the existing market-rate apartments, but officials have been working to create new affordable options for its residents, said Nyack Mayor Jen Laird-White.

"We remain committed to producing affordable housing because we believe that we want (economic) diversity in the community," she said. "We want young people to live in Nyack."

The village's affordable-housing ordinance requires multifamily home developers whose proposals call for more than five units to set aside at least 10 percent of the total units as affordable. Those units are targeted for people who earn 80 percent of Rockland's median income, or $58,080 for a one-person household and $66,320 for a two-person household, according to HUD's 2017 income guidelines.

To opt out the requirement, developers can contribute $40,000 per unit of affordable housing to the village's Affordable Housing Buyout Fund, which would be used to assist first-time home buyers and senior citizens who want to renovate their homes to stay in the community.

It's still unclear whether the TZ Vista proposal, also known as the Gedney Street Project, would include affordable units because the project is still in a relatively early stage, White said.

"If it’s built, it would have to include 10 percent of affordable units," she said. "Or they have to put money into the fund."

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