Housing Vocab
This term, short for "Not In My Backyard,"describes opposition to affordable housing or shelters being built in your own neighborhood.
What is NIMBY?
Most people we talked to during the community survey said NYC does NOT have enough affordable housing.
This is the type of housing where annual rent increases are capped and decided each year by the Rent Guidelines Board.
What is rent stabilization?
This is NYC's current minimum wage.
What is $17/hour?
This grim nickname describes the 1970s–80s era when landlords set Bronx buildings on fire to collect insurance money.
What is "The Bronx Was Burning"
This housing model isn't on the private market and isn't built to turn a profit for a landlord — think housing owned by a nonprofit, the city, or the state.
What is social housing?
Paying 50% of your income towards housing is considered affordable.
False
This is the number you call if you're having a problem with your housing, your neighborhood, or the subway — as long as it's not a crime in progress.
What is 311?
This term describes an income high enough to cover housing, basic needs, and a few wants on top.
What is a living wage?
This term is the opposite of NIMBY — support for building new housing, including affordable housing, in your own neighborhood.
What is YIMBY?
These are the city rules that control what can be built where — like how tall a building can be or whether it can be residential, commercial, or industrial.
What is zoning?
Apartment buildings built before 1974 are generally part of the rent stabilization system.
This is the actual name for "the projects" — public housing developments where the government owns the buildings and tenants pay based on income.
What is Section 9 housing (run by NYCHA)?
This is the historic system by which employers discriminate against women and pay them less money than men for equal work.
What is the gender pay gap?
Council Member Sanchez quotes this Bronx-born rapper as saying she left Fordham the second she got rich.
Who is Ice Spice?
This discriminatory practice denied loans and investment to certain neighborhoods based on race — its effects still shape the Bronx today.
What is redlining?
Anyone, regardless of income, can qualify for affordable housing.
False.
This program subsidizes rents in private/market rate rentals, making sure people are paying no more than 30% of their income towards housing.
What is the housing voucher program?
This a group of workers who organize for better wages and benefits from their employer.
What is a union?
This community-ownership model lets residents collectively buy and hold land — sometimes below market price — to keep it affordable long-term.
What is a Community Land Trust?
This crime happens when a scammer tricks a homeowner — often an elderly one — into signing over the paperwork proving they own their house.
What is deed theft?
If you have nowhere to sleep tonight, NYC is legally required to give you shelter.
True. (Right to Shelter)
If you want to change something about housing in your neighborhood, this is the first person in government you should reach out to.
Who is a city council member (i.e. Justin Sanchez)?
Housing is too expensive and wages are not high enough. (Hint: this is the simplest answer to our essential question)
If people are working, why can't they afford housing?
This Bronx highway, which divides neighborhoods, is being studied for a possible "cap" project after $2 million in funding was secured.
What is the Cross Bronx Expressway?