Editorials

An important precedent

Oct 18, 2007 6:02 PM

Many of us think New York is the greatest city in the world but there’s no doubt one has to make sacrifices to live here. The cost of renting or owning a place to live is near the top of those sacrifices. So how can we attract and retain great educators when just living here is so expensive? Raising pay is one way and the UFT has been rather successful in recent years doing just that. Our new contract and its first new pay raise kicks in this month.

Affordable housing is another, and the union, the city and the Teachers’ Retirement System recently took a dramatic step to achieve that. The TRS, working with City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. and the City’s Housing Development Corp., will invest more than $28 million to build 234 affordable housing units in the Bronx for educators working in New York City schools.

Such housing is in a long tradition of union-built housing, including in New York such projects as the Amalgamated Houses in the Bronx, sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and Electchester, a Queens housing complex created by the electricians’ union.

In this new endeavor, there will be two buildings in the Melrose section of the Bronx available to teachers, teaching aides and school administrators. To be eligible, educators must work in a primary or secondary school in the city and make less than 110 percent of the median income, or about $83,600 for a family of four.

These will be the first buildings to be constructed with city pension money. Construction on the city-owned land is expected to begin in a few months and be completed by 2009.
Apartments will range in size from studios to three-bedrooms, with studios renting for $806 per month, a one-bedroom apartment for $1,015 per month, two-bedrooms for $1,222, and three-bedrooms for $1,412. The units will become rent-stabilized after they are occupied. Educators who live in the neighborhood and those with disabilities will get additional preferences.

This new housing is important not only for its immediate effect but for the precedent it sets. More such projects are needed throughout the city. Now there is, as President Weingarten has put it, “a template” for others to follow.