Attorney at Law

c/o COLLINS DOBKIN & MILLER LLP

277 Broadway, 14th Fl.

New York, NY  10007

212-587-2400, ext. 13

                                                                                    November 9, 2006

Hon. Christine Quinn

Speaker of the City Council

City Hall

New York, NY 10007

Re: Affordable Housing

Dear Madam Speaker:

            I am writing this open letter in my capacity as Counsel to the Queens League of the United Tenants (QLOUT).

            It is my position that it is time for the City Council to enact a bill that would define the term of “affordable housing.”  It is troubling to the tenants’ movement that in the Bloomberg administration, this term remains amorphous.  It is the hallmark of Bloomberg’s concept that in every project in which this term appears, there is a different scale for affordable housing.

            The latest example of this is the Ratner project in Brooklyn, where affordable housing is defined as a minimum of $71,000 and a maximum of a $113,000.  This, of course, looks ridiculous to the tenants’ movement in terms of need for housing where affordable housing should be concentrated.

            I refer, Madam Speaker, to the recently released Furman study by New York University which demonstrates that income for those in need of affordable housing, a substantial percentage of families earning less than $25,000. In these terms, Bloomberg’s proportion of housing becomes "pie in the sky" for most working New Yorkers that are in need of affordable housing.  This anomaly should be addressed by the City Council as soon as possible.

            I thank you for your kind attention.

                                                                                    Respectfully yours,

                                                                                    Robert A. Katz