By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME

When it comes to housing, most of our members are in a bind. They’re trapped between their modest salaries and the soaring cost of a place to live.

For working-class people, New York City’s housing boom is a housing crisis. Too many of the workers who keep this city running — DC 37 members — can’t afford to live in the city.

Beautiful high-rise towers full of million-dollar one-bedroom apartments have driven out affordable housing. Working people have been friendless as the political establishment gradually erased rent controls, subsidized luxury housing, and allowed buy-outs and privatization of subsidized middle-income housing, such as Stuyvesant Town and Mitchell-Lama buildings.

The residency requirement has locked over 45,000 of our lowest-paid members in an economic prison — and the City Council holds the key. We are working hard to convince the council to loosen the residency requirement to help our members find affordable housing. Passing Intro. 452 would expand the area where they must live beyond the five boroughs by adding six nearby counties — Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Putnam.

The current residency restriction imposes intolerable financial burdens on middle-class workers. With average salaries in the low $30,000s, DC 37 members are bearing an unfair share of the costs of the housing crisis. We are telling the City Council it is time for a change — now.

Intro. 452 would simply implement the residency provision of our 2005-2008 contract, an agreement that we negotiated in good faith with the city. Never before has the City Council rejected the contents of a legitimate labor contract. Repudiating Intro. 452 would be a dangerous precedent, threatening labor’s right to settle issues peacefully at the bargaining table. Passing Intro. 452 would preserve the integrity of the collective bargaining process.

Although 85 percent of our members live in the city — and in their districts — the council members who are trying to block Intro. 452 have done little to increase the supply of affordable housing for working families.

DC 37 has done more to help members cope with the housing crisis than any other union. Working with the city and many banks, our Municipal Employees Housing Program provides down-payment grants, credit counseling, lower-priced mortgages and more to help members obtain affordable housing — rentals, co-ops, condos and houses. But right now, 200 members in the program have pre-approved mortgages. They’re ready to buy — but they can’t find housing they can afford anywhere in the five boroughs!

Our right to choose
Some fear that Intro. 452 would lead to a mass exodus of city employees, but the evidence tells us otherwise. Seven of our locals are exempt from the residency rule, but the vast majority of their members still live within the five boroughs. But just like these members, all our members deserve the right to choose where to live based on their individual family needs.

Meanwhile, better-paid city employees such as police, fire and teachers are not tied down by the same residency rule as employees represented by DC 37. In 2005, Sanitation workers won the right to extend their search for affordable housing into the six surrounding counties. Giving our members the same geographic choice is simply a matter of economic justice.

We represent the most diversified group of city workers in terms of job functions, gender, ethnicity and race. Failure to pass Intro. 452 would consign these employees to an economic underclass and bring into question the City Council’s commitment to equal justice for all. For the 121,000 members of District Council 37, fixing the residency regulation is far more than an economic issue. It is a matter of our human right to equality under the law.

To the City Council I say: Our average pay may be less than some groups, but when it comes to where we live, we deserve equal rights.

To our members I say: Stay ready for whatever action it takes — political or otherwise — to enforce our contract and win our rights.