To Spicer, concerns about affordable housing production goals ignore the role that low-paid, sometimes off-the-books construction workers play in making the housing plan work. "Their mantra is 'units, units, units.' There's a bigger issue here—it's 'What are you building, how are you building it and what are the other factors that are part of its cost restraints that put it in the realm of illegal practices?'" she contends.
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The effort to apply prevailing wage laws to affordable housing has been underway for years but has yet to claim legislative victory. That could change this year. With private-market construction projects drying up, the importance to labor unions of government-funded work grows. CHPC believes an affordable housing prevailing wage could gain passage in the city or state this year.
Unions have recently allowed members to work on projects that include some non-prevailing wage workers, and some labor officials have also considered developing a lower wage schedule to apply to union work on affordable housing projects. An argument for prevailing wages, says Parrott, is that they're about more than simply higher pay for workers. "One of the best things about the prevailing wage system is that it builds in and finances an extensive training system that equips people for careers and a decent living standard," he says. "Non-prevailing wage work is the antithesis of all that.”
Both sides of the debate seem to acknowledge that, to some degree, there is a tradeoff between building more housing and treating workers better—or, in the unions' view, more justly. Shultz could speak for either side when he warns: "You have to pick your goals carefully."
