Opinion: Expanding the J-51 Tax Incentive is Key Co-ops Staying Affordable—And Becoming Sustainable – City Limits

“By passing the expanded J-51 proposal in this year’s budget, the governor and legislature have a chance to help co-ops afford the energy upgrades mandated by Local Law 97, keep monthly maintenance fees from skyrocketing, and enable residents to continue affording their homes.”

Nonprofit co-operative housing has long provided lower and middle income New Yorkers with stable, affordable, family-sized homes. Beginning in the 1920s under the sponsorship of labor unions and continuing with state-sponsored limited-equity housing development through the 1970s, tens of thousands of units were built. Laborers, teachers, nurses, social workers, secretaries, small business owners, bus drivers, and many others—in short, those who weave the fabric of daily life in our city—were the beneficiaries.

Today, these co-ops still provide crucial islands of affordability to New Yorkers of modest means. As communities founded on neighbors sharing financial and operational responsibilities, they are bastions of civic engagement. And many are now also Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs)—a designation that can help allow longtime residents to age in place with dignity. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that a daunting combination of infrastructure needs, rising property taxes, and the looming cost of compliance with Local Law 97 (LL97) is threatening the financial stability of these affordable communities. Retrofitting sizable buildings—the largest source of emissions in New York City—is neither technically easy nor inexpensive. Support is essential if co-operative housing is to have a future that is sustainable, in both senses of that word.

There is hope on the horizon. This year’s budget packages from Gov. Kathy Hochul and the New York State Senate both include proposals to expand a tax incentive known as “the new J-51.” First passed several years ago, and set to expire this June, the abatement provides lower-income co-ops with a property tax break to help cover building improvements that cut utility bills and reduce pollution. 

The expanded incentive proposed by the Senate would extend the program’s timeframe by 10 years and dramatically increase the eligibility cap. This is urgently needed by a swath of middle-income co-ops that sit just barely above the current eligibility cap—like North Queensview Homes in Astoria, Queens, where I am a shareholder and a volunteer board member.

North Queensview’s 364 apartments have been home to middle-income families since they were constructed in 1958. We now have many multi-generational residents and a successful NORC, as well as more recently arrived families with young children. Our apartments sell for relatively low prices, and have relatively low income requirements to qualify as a purchaser. We support our local economy by offering good-paying union jobs and working with locally-based contractors, service providers, and other vendors.

As I’ve worked to help North Queensview both decarbonize (including by participating in the Green Co-op Council) and remain financially viable, I’ve had a chance to see what the tax relief offered by an expanded J-51 would mean to real people. 

On the one hand, we have seen our property tax bill nearly quadruple in the last decade, even as our sales prices have remained flat. Our tax burden as a percent of our operating budget more than doubled from 2015-2025. That has forced us to increase monthly maintenance fees by 10 percent and 7.5 percent in successive years, putting vulnerable shareholders at risk of displacement. 

At the same time, we have made significant investments in energy-saving measures such as submetering, installing LED lighting and high-efficiency exhaust fans, wrapping our boilers, and switching to cleaner-burning fuel. However, as deeply committed as our board is to environmental sustainability, the multi-million dollar costs for more extensive climate-friendly retrofits like window upgrades, roof replacements, and eventually switching to heat pumps are prohibitively expensive. 

We want our apartments to stay affordable, and we want the environmental benefits of LL97 to happen. But without financial help, our co-op—and many others across the city in the same boat —might be forced to pay steep fines instead of doing necessary climate work.  

By passing the expanded J-51 proposal in this year’s budget, the governor and legislature have a chance to help co-ops afford the energy upgrades mandated by LL97, keep monthly maintenance fees from skyrocketing, and enable residents to continue affording their homes.

Jen Robinson is a board member at North Queensview Homes, Inc., and a member of the Green Co-op Council.