James Allen

My focus

I focus my practice on affordable housing transactions and represent clients in connection with affordable real estate matters. My experience includes reviewing and analyzing keystone affordable housing real estate and regulatory transaction documents. I am also attuned to important changes to federal, state, and local legislation that may impact and hopefully expand affordable and supportive housing at each level. Inclusionary, livable, and sustainable communities are a priority for me, and I have committed my career to devising real estate transactions in a manner that allows us to maintain and create diverse communities and truly affordable housing options.

Representative experience

• “The Color of Algorithms: An Analysis and Proposed Research Agenda for Deterring Algorithmic Redlining,” 46 Fordham Urb. L.J. 219 (2019)
• “Disrupting Affordable Housing: Regulating AirBnB and Other Short-Term Rental Housing in New York City,” 26 J. Affordable Housing & Cmty. Dev. L. 151 (2017)

Looking ahead

As the demand for affordable multifamily housing continues to grow, developers and owners of multifamily housing are confronted with the challenges of finding new, creative ways to leverage public and private resources. I am thinking about how to best utilize public and private resources to develop and preserve affordable housing.

I am also interested in how innovative technology can help lower the costs of affordable housing development and real estate transactions. The last few years have seen incredible leaps in both real estate and legal technology, which, I expect, will help streamline affordable housing development and transactions.