ANNA LEWIS WANTS TO CREATE MORE MIDDLE-INCOME HOUSING
Candidate Will Work With Developers to Provide Affordable Options for Residents
Anna Lewis, Attorney, and Candidate for State Senate in New York's 31st District, plans to make the development of affordable housing a cornerstone of her administration. Her ideas include working with developers to build housing, as well as converting their unsold, vacant stock into affordable units, and creating new housing as part of Columbia University's West Harlem expansion.
At a recent fundraiser, Ms. Lewis expressed her intentions, "I sit on the Board of the Mitchell-Lama Residents Coalition, and believe that program was one of the most successful housing initiatives in the country, and I want to bring a similar model to New York today. My office will work with developers to make it economically advantageous for them to build affordable housing. Mitchell-Lamas were built to house middle-income workers like police officers, teachers and firemen, ensuring they could live where they worked. If a police officer knows the children in the neighborhood he will be much less likely to harass them unreasonably, or suspect them of crimes they do not commit. In turn, the children will respect the officer as someone who can better relate to their everyday lives. The same goes for teachers and students. A mutual living experience fosters communication that results in a higher quality education. That is my vision for the 31st District."
Ms. Lewis continued, "Some say that this is not an ideal time to build affordable housing due to the economy. I say the conditions are perfect. There is a much greater need for housing in a bad financial time than in a prosperous one. We built our country's infrastructure during the Great Depression, and we can build more housing today. Developing more middle-income units will aid in preserving the fiber of our communities through our recovery, and provide well-paying jobs for New Yorkers." The candidate also proposed offering landlords who cannot sell or rent existing luxury units tax incentives to house middle-income residents, as well as putting more pressure on Columbia University to build affordable units as part of their West Harlem expansion plan. "Dormitories provide housing for students, but that's not enough. Columbia University enjoys the benefits of our community, and needs to make more of a commitment to giving something back," she said.
"I will also encourage more attention to aesthetics in new architecture. Tenants tend to treat the places in which they live as a response to how they make them feel. If you house people in drab, over-crowded, structures they will lack respect for their surroundings. Provide people with a home they care about and it will elevate their lives in terms of their psychological and physical health. Columbus Avenue, in my district, provides a perfect example of subsidized housing which adds to, rather than detracts from, the beauty of the community and the well-being of its people," she said.
An Attorney for 26 years, Anna Lewis served as Lead Counsel to the "New York State Assembly's Committee on Oversight, Analysis and Investigation," and is currently an attorney with New York State's Health Department, where she prosecutes physicians and physician assistants for professional misconduct, including cases involving insurance fraud, negligence and sexual abuse of patients. She is a 25 year resident of the Upper West Side.