It's the Brian Lairn Show on WNYC.

I'm Bridget Bergen, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom, filling in for Brian today.

Now, we'll dive into the complexities of housing

affordability in New York City and two housing policy with two housing policy analysts from the

Community Service Society of New York, CSS. They recently published a report on the stark

disparities in income across different demographics in the city, and how the widely used

metric area media income or AMI median income, often fails to capture the economic realities

many New Yorkers face. It's an important tool that helps determine what's affordable and to whom,

and yet, the authors of this new report say it's probably

the most hated metric for discussing housing affordability in the United States. The report calls for

a more nuanced approach to housing policy that considers the real income levels of city residents.

Joining me now with more of their analysis are

Samuel Stein and Oksana Mironeva, Housing Policy Analysts at the Community Service Society

and the authors of the report, AMI in NYC, visualizing inequality and unaffordability with area median income.

Samuel and Oksana, welcome to WNYC.

Thank you, Bridget.

Thanks for having us on.

And Samuel, let's just start with the basics.

Can you explain the concept of area median income

and why it's such a critical metric in discussions about housing affordability?

Sure. Area median income or AMI is the way that we talk about rent setting in New York and the way

that we talk about who it's going to be affordable to. And I should say it's not just New York.

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