Fixes for NYC’s housing shortage
New York is the greatest city in the world because of the promise it holds for all people. From longtime New Yorkers who have sustained our neighborhoods for generations, to the thousands from around the world who arrive every year to seize a chance at a better life, our city remains in constant demand for people seeking opportunity, prosperity, and purpose.
Yet, the dire shortage of homes in our city has exacerbated a crisis of affordability. While finding a place to live in this city has never been easy, the data shows that we continue to face a severe housing crisis that demands urgent action.
Last week, the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development released its latest Housing and Vacancy Survey, and the findings were deeply troubling. The vacancy rate for available apartments has dropped to 1.41% — the lowest since 1968. That means in our city of more than 8 million people, only 33,000 homes were available to rent, with very few of them considered affordable. For the most affordable apartments in our city, the vacancy rate was just 0.39%.
These aren’t just statistics; they represent a harsh reality for New Yorkers and carry devastating consequences. It means families cannot afford to raise children in the city, working people are priced out, and older New Yorkers and those with disabilities struggle to find accessible places to live.
The lack of affordability spurred by the housing crisis has also prompted a mass exodus of Black New Yorkers — a dramatic shift that has impacted the diversity of our communities. In just two decades, the city’s Black population has decreased by nearly 10%, with nearly 200,000 Black New Yorkers driven out by skyrocketing rent and the increasingly elusive dream of owning a home.
As middle- and low-income people are pushed out of our city, it means our economic and cultural potential is threatened.
As two city leaders who grew up in working-class neighborhoods in Southeast Queens, we cannot accept a status quo that fails everyday New Yorkers, leaving them without the opportunities afforded to us.
While the city has broken records in financing affordable housing and connecting New Yorkers to homes over the past two years, New York cannot solve this crisis alone. All levels of government must contribute solutions to alleviate the shortage and help New York remain a place for those who keep it running.
In Washington, the Senate should follow the House’s lead and immediately pass the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act, which includes two critical affordable housing tax provisions that could help finance thousands of affordable homes in our city. Congress must also advance spending bills with the highest levels of funding possible for the federal affordable housing programs we depend on to continue to build housing.
In Albany, we must create a new affordable housing tax incentive while bolstering tenant protections, facilitate office conversions for affordable homes, and remove the cap on floor-to-area ratio (FAR) in many of the city’s densest areas to drastically increase the construction of affordable homes.
Here at home, the City Council has enacted a Fair Housing Framework law that sets clear expectations and targets for every community to equitably contribute to solving the housing crisis. With the administration’s “City of Yes” for Housing Opportunity text amendment, our city has the opportunity to reform the city’s decades-old discriminatory zoning code to prioritize inclusionary policies that create more homes.
These proposals can deliver more permanently affordable homes in high-density neighborhoods, develop housing in commercial corridors to fuel local economic activity, and give religious institutions the flexibility to add homes on their properties to generate needed income, among other efforts to build a little more housing in every neighborhood.
As New Yorkers, we can no longer afford to reject new housing, especially in communities that have the most access to resources and infrastructure.
If we do not act with a level of urgency, all communities will be at further risk of even higher rates of homelessness, leading to less stability and safety.
As we face the stark realities of this survey, we must remember that solutions are within reach. All of us have a role to play in addressing the housing crisis, but it will require a shift from instinctual opposition to any change, no matter how minor.
In order to protect our communities and improve the city, we must welcome investments into housing across all communities. That’s the only way we can deliver homes for New Yorkers and secure a better future for all.