Daniel Arnow testifies on artist housing and affordable workspace
Daniel Arnow of the Entertainment Community Fund and Housing Development Corporation says the resident artist population is declining, and calls for city-led developments to include cultural facilities, affordable artist housing, and an artist preference in affordable housing.
Good afternoon.
My name's Daniel Arno.
I'm here on behalf of the Entertainment Community Fund and our Housing Development Corporation.
We are a human service organization that provides support, including affordable housing, to everyone in the performing arts and entertainment community.
I'm here with Esther and Randy to discuss Create NYC's Objective 4, which is focused on the affordability crisis, real estate, and our cultural community.
Arts and culture are New York City's greatest asset.
Arts workers are the engine of our creative community and strengthen communities.
Yet, New York City's resident artist population is declining for the first time in decades.
This situation is driven by the affordability crisis, the high cost of real estate, and rising cost of living.
Arts and culture are a public good.
It requires strong infrastructure and intentional city planning.
A critical question for us is how do we preserve and create long-term affordable artist workspace and artist housing?
To start, city-led developments can explicitly include cultural facilities and affordable housing for artists.
These priorities should be built into the initial planning, RFP process, and include DCLA as a partner from the outset.
For affordable artist workspace within mixed-use affordable affordable
housing developments, the city should create a streamlined and dedicated pathway that enables arts organizations to partner with developers, access capital funding for the fit out of these facilities.
This would help deliver cultural spaces more quickly while reducing risk, cost, and uncertainty for stakeholders.
On the housing front, we need more affordable housing for all New Yorkers, and we also need dedicated programs that are designed to address the unique needs of our community.
New York needs a little bit of artist housing everywhere.
One mechanism to achieve this is an artist's preference in affordable housing.
And we do support legislation introduced that would allow the city to establish an artist's preference without violating the human rights law.
Thank you.