The benefits of the Adams administration’s zoning reform plan are especially big for those on the bottom rungs of the income ladder.
Across New York and around the country, everyone is talking about the housing affordability crisis. The President-elect’s housing record underscores that it’s more important than ever to embrace local solutions to add more housing and lower rents, and the Council Members will soon be voting on “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity,” an ambitious plan that could increase the annual citywide production of new units by nearly 30%, all by allowing just a little bit more housing to be built in every neighborhood.
Councilmembers face a critical choice: either pass a strong version of City of Yes that would add as many as 109,000 new homes over the next decade across New York City, or approve a diluted plan that would do little to address our housing crisis.
The New Yorkers who will be most affected by the Council’s decision in the long run are those living in poverty.
With vacancy rates at their lowest since 1968, New York City’s housing shortage touches everyone. But for millions of low-income families, it is the central struggle of their lives. It determines whether they will spend the night in a shelter or in a home; whether their children are able to walk to school or have to take a bus for hours every day; whether they go hungry or put food on the table each night.
Nearly a third of low-income renters in New York City spend more than half of their income on rent, and recent data from Robin Hood’s Poverty Tracker finds that for the typical rent-burdened New Yorker living in poverty, rent amounts to 70% of their cash income each month, leaving little left over to afford other basic needs like food, childcare or medical care.
Those low-income households that aren’t rent-burdened largely live in public housing or have rental assistance that helps them make ends meet. However, these lifelines are not available to all who are struggling, which is why we need policymakers across the city, state and federal government to significantly increase investments in rental assistance and NYCHA.
We also need to build a whole lot of new housing, and to do that, we need zoning reform.
The city cannot meaningfully grow its housing stock by concentrating all new construction in a handful of communities. A few skyscrapers in a few neighborhoods do not add up to the new housing needed for all income levels.
For decades, the city’s zoning rules have been downright hostile to new housing, with strict limits on where and how much housing can be built. The result is that New York City is behind almost every other city in the country in per capita housing growth. Our restrictive and often exclusionary zoning rules create an environment of unnecessary scarcity that amounts to a game of musical chairs, where the lowest-income New Yorkers are always the ones left standing. Many of the zoning rules that limit housing development are anachronistic, irrational and exclusionary. We can’t afford these unproductive limits any longer.
These rules close many of New York City’s neighborhoods off from new residents, especially New Yorkers with the least economic power. In 2023, many neighborhoods saw zero new affordable homes built, while others welcomed hundreds. As we have seen over the past 20 years, the city cannot meaningfully grow its housing stock by concentrating all new construction in a handful of communities. A few skyscrapers in a few neighborhoods do not add up to the new housing needed for all income levels.
City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is a key step towards ensuring that New York City ends that scarcity environment by building a little more housing in every neighborhood, which will translate to a lot more housing overall, including an unprecedented amount of affordable housing. The proposal, which is supported by 81% of New Yorkers, will encourage a wide range of housing types to be built at all price levels across the five boroughs — from a low-cost “granny flat” in an unused garage to supportive apartments for formerly homeless adults in vacant office buildings.
Beyond just new housing, a new report from the Regional Planning Association estimates that City of Yes would create up to 30,000 new jobs annually for 15 years, generating $32 billion in total earnings and $83 billion in overall economic activity. It is the diversity and breadth of the changes in City of Yes that excite us the most; no community will be overburdened with new housing, and all communities will contribute to, and benefit from, creating a New York City where housing opportunities are more plentiful.
Some have argued that City of Yes doesn’t do enough to create a production pipeline for deeply affordable housing. This is an important concern for organizations like ours, Robin Hood and Trinity Church, whose partners are focused on meeting the needs of the poorest New Yorkers. It is true that citywide zoning amendments are only one piece of the puzzle. For example, we also need statewide zoning reform, and greater city and state capital investments to subsidize the production of deeply affordable housing and help NYCHA make much-needed repairs.
To help tenants afford rent today, we also need to ensure that more New Yorkers have access to rental assistance. We must advocate for more federal housing choice vouchers in Congress and create a statewide housing voucher in New York. And we must make it easier for current voucher holders to use them. Right now, half of voucher holders are unable to, in large part due to the supply shortage but also because of administrative delays and landlords who discriminate against voucher holders. That’s why Robin Hood and Trinity Church have supported innovative new organizations like Anthos Home, which expedites quality housing placements for those living in shelters, and partners with government agencies to reform the voucher process.
But once again, while zoning reform may not be a silver bullet, we should not dismiss the significant benefits that it can have on increasing housing supply and expanding affordability. Research shows that zoning changes similar to City of Yes slowed rent growth considerably in Minneapolis. In New Rochelle, rents dropped by 5% after adding new housing.
We must advocate for more federal housing choice vouchers in Congress and create a statewide housing voucher in New York. And we must make it easier for current voucher holders to use them.
In New York City, most new housing is likely to be built using tax incentives. Albany recently reformed New York City’s market rate tax abatement, requiring that 20% to 25% of units built using tax abatement subsidies must be affordable for those who earn 60% to 80% of the Area Median Income, depending on building size and location. This will add tens of thousands of truly affordable homes across the five boroughs in the upcoming decade. It will not solve homelessness, but it will also make many of our tools to combat it, like rental vouchers, more effective and easier to use.
Beyond these policy changes, Robin Hood, Trinity Church and many other nonprofit organizations throughout the city remain committed to funding a comprehensive range of initiatives to build and preserve affordable housing and prevent evictions and homelessness. City of Yes is a critical step in the right direction, but we also need to expand access to eviction programs, unlock federal funding for capital repairs at public housing and support the shelter providers who care for tens of thousands of New Yorkers every day. These goals should not be pitted against each other; they should work together with the goal of a fairer, more livable and more affordable city.
New York City’s housing crisis wasn’t created overnight, and we won’t solve it overnight. It is the result of decades of restrictive and discriminatory zoning policies and underinvestment in affordable housing. But we have to start somewhere. The City Council can start by voting Yes on City of Yes.