By Delonte Fung. New York is currently the fourth most populated state in the United States of America, with 19 million people living there as of 2024. New York City alone holds just under half of the total state’s population, at around 8 million people. New York is considered one of the most expensive states in the country to live in. According to CNBC, “Manhattan is the most expensive place to live in the U.S. — and the cost of living in the No. 2 place isn’t even close. The cost of living in Manhattan is more than twice the national average. The second- and third-most expensive places are Honolulu and San Jose, California, but in comparison, they are much more affordable. Manhattan is 24% more expensive than Honolulu and 30% more expensive than San Jose.”
One reason for New York’s high cost of living is the ongoing housing crisis. The Citizens Budget Commission (CBCNY) reports that “New York City needs an additional 560,000 housing units by 2030; of that, 227,000 units were needed immediately to make up for past underproduction”. But how would the city build 560,000 housing units in the next six years?
New York City’s Mayor, Eric Adams, has a proposal, dubbed the “City of Yes.” [Editor’s note: This proposal, described below, was passed on December 5 with some adjustments.] “The housing shortage was created by government policies, and government policies can fix it,” his administration asserts on the Department of City Planning website.
“The Adams administration wants to build more housing in every neighborhood, by changing long-standing zoning laws through the mayor’s “City of Yes” proposal,” Ali Bauman and Natalie Duddridge report for CBS News.
The mayor plans to combat the housing crisis with six elements: the universal affordability preference (UAP), town center zoning, removing parking mandates, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), transit-oriented development, and campuses.
The objective of the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP is to increase current building sizes in high demand neighborhoods by 20% if the additional homes are affordable to 60% of residents in the area. According to New York Planning, “under the Universal Affordability Preference, the building can be built with at least 20% more space, so long as it uses that extra space for affordable housing. The result is more affordable units in a high-cost neighborhood, and more opportunities for working families to live and thrive in New York.” The UAP program also includes plans to convert unused office buildings and non-residential spaces into housing. This city claims that it is “a win-win policy to create housing, boost property values, and create more active, vibrant neighborhoods.” New York Planning notes that “modest apartment buildings with stores on the street and apartments above exist in low-density areas across the five boroughs – most of them from the 1920s to 1950s. However, today’s zoning prohibits that classic form even in areas where it’s very common.”
The second element, town center zoning, would relegalize two, three and four-story buildings to be constructed on top of existing commercial buildings, providing urgently needed homes. Much like town center zoning, the third element of removing parking mandates would create more space for buildings and would decrease rent. Removing parking mandates will make building off-street parking an option and would no longer force new buildings to build dedicated parking. “Parking takes up space. 2 spaces = 1 studio apartment,” states New York Planning. “For the cost of constructing 4 off-street parking spots, we could build a new home.” Building parking is expensive and that expense contributes to the high cost of rent. By removing the current parking mandates new affordable homes can be built and rent will decrease.
Another way the city plans on building more houses is with accessory dwelling units (ADUs). “Across the city, small homeowners face challenges with rising costs and aging in place. Regulations limit what New Yorkers can do with their own property…Meanwhile, spaces like garages go unused when improvements could make them comfortable homes,” states New York Planning. The city intends to change regulations on backyard cottages and garage conversions so they can be turned into small homes. These new ADUs will support the homeowners without changing the look or feel of the neighborhood. The hope is that these new ADUs will be used for family members, like seniors who are on a fixed income or young people looking for a first home, but they can also be rented out to give the homeowner extra cash.
Transit oriented development is also featured in the “City of Yes” proposal since “adding housing near public transit is a commonsense approach to support convenient lifestyles, limit the need for car ownership, lower congestion, and reduce carbon emissions.” Current zoning rules prohibit the building of apartments near transit hubs, forcing people to depend on cars and increasing traffic congestion. The proposal would re-legalize three to five story transit-oriented apartment buildings in low density neighborhoods, depending on the zoning district.
The last element, “campuses” refers to “residential, faith-based, or other campuses” with “underused space” that could be transformed into housing. “That new construction can pay for repairs to existing buildings, breathe new life into community institutions, and help address our housing crisis,” states New York Planning. However, current zoning rules and regulations prohibit new developments. The proposal would make it easier for existing campuses to build buildings by removing current obstacles and outdated rules, creating new buildings that could bring in money for housing, repairs, and new facilities.
The New York Housing Conference executive director, Rachel Fee, has claimed that the “City of Yes” will “add a little bit more housing in every neighborhood” and that “these are the changes that we need to address housing shortage.” However, not everyone agrees. Some claim that the proposal would make life harder for middle class New Yorkers without solving the homeless crisis. Others argue that the city does not yet have the infrastructure to implement it.
Urban planner Paul Graziano, who lives in Flushing, argues that his neighborhood, as well as Whitestone, Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck, parts of College Point, that are predominantly made up of single-family homes” would suffer since, under the “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity,” areas like his would be rezoned for new construction. “This plan needs to be scrapped,” Graziano said to CBS News. The executive director of the coalition for the homeless,
David Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, finds fault with the proposals, as well, though his concern is that they inadequately address New York’s homeless crisis. “The only way we’re going to get the housing for the people who need it is if there’s a specific plan for creating that level of housing. Right now, that plan doesn’t exist,” he states. “There is no affordable, truly affordable, housing in New York City anymore.”
However, Nicholas Bloom, an urban policy professor at Hunter College, draws parallels between “City of Yes” and rezoning initiatives in cities like Portland and Minneapolis. “There is evidence that more housing production, as in other cities, can have a kind of filter effect where it essentially does reduce rents for many people.” On Thursday November 21, 2024, “City of Yes” passed a key council committee vote with some modifications, from 100 thousand to 80 thousand new units, and will now move ahead to a full city council vote, likely to be held on December 5, 2024, where it will be determined if the city will invest $5 billion into housing and infrastructure. The mayor claims that his proposal is “the most historical housing reform in the history of the city.”
