The Contradictions of Capital in Rezoning and Affordable Housing Policies: A Case Study of East New York

Between a rapidly growing population and costs of rents rising faster than income levels, New York City is in the middle of a housing crisis. With a large amount of its population rent burdened, the city is exploring new ways to create and preserve affordable housing. This case study examines how the city’s most recent approach of rezoning has affected the neighborhood of East New York, its access to affordable housing, and its low-income residents ability to be able to maintain a space within the neighborhood. By framing this research within the right to the city and political economy approaches, the paper explores how social, political, economic, and spatial structures influence rezoning and affordable housing. It also looks at housing in capitalism, and how the circulation, social relation, and ideology of capital have guided the process that the city has engaged in. Specifically looking at the mechanisms used, with attention paid to a new policy of mandatory inclusionary housing, and weighing these against the question of who benefits and who is excluded from the rezoning, shows how the rezoning and preservation of affordable housing end up in conflict with one another. This paper suggests additional mechanisms to be able to increase the effectiveness of the policy, as well as a general reframing of the approach as a more bottom up, inclusive, community development directed policy that prioritizes the preservation of current affordability levels, and community development at same level of importance as new market based development.