Opinion: Black and Brown New Yorkers deserve an immediate solution to the homeowner crisis

In the New York I grew up in, homeownership meant something. Even in a city primarily of renters, it was possible, with enough hard work, for middle-class New Yorkers to own a piece of the American dream – especially if they lived in the “outer” boroughs.

Today, that dream is fading for the grandchildren of Caribbean immigrants in Flatbush, Dominicans in the Bronx and Black families in my native East Elmhurst. New York's median home price has jumped from $450,000 in 2010 to $785,000 today. And the city's homeownership rate sits more than 50% below the national average.

It’s one reason why, over the last 25 years, more than 200,000 Black New Yorkers have left – creating not just a demographic crisis, but a political one, too. Fewer people means fewer Congressional seats and less political