Mayor Eric Adams
Ed Reed/Mayoral Images Workplace.
Our metropolis is dealing with a generational housing disaster with a emptiness fee at 1.4 p.c, and half of all New York renters are paying greater than 30 p.c of their earnings in hire. The one strategy to clear up this disaster is easy: construct extra. That requires all of us to say ‘sure’ to a bit of extra housing in each neighborhood and ‘sure’ to ‘Metropolis of Sure for Housing Alternative’ plan — probably the most pro-housing zoning proposal in New York Metropolis’s historical past.
There’s a rising refrain of voices all throughout town saying ‘sure’ to our Metropolis of Sure proposal. Final week, the New York Metropolis Planning Fee held an all-day listening to on the proposal with over 200 New Yorkers testifying — nearly all of which voicing their help. And so they weren’t alone. Final week, the borough presidents within the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, in addition to LGBTQ+ advocates and AARP additionally stood as much as proudly say ‘sure’ as effectively.
If handed, Metropolis of Sure would permit us to lastly deal with the longstanding housing scarcity that has made life tough and unaffordable for a lot too many hardworking New Yorkers. Everyone has a narrative: The would-be householders outbid by money consumers or a personal fairness agency, the firefighter who can’t afford to stay within the neighborhood he serves, the older New Yorker who has spent a lifetime within the household enterprise solely to search out herself unable to pay hire on a hard and fast earnings, and the brand new dad and mom who can’t afford a sufficiently big condo to lift their household. These are the on a regular basis New Yorkers impacted by this housing disaster.
The disaster reached its peak as a result of for too lengthy, New York Metropolis has been on the mercy at people who’ve mentioned ‘no.’ In our administration, we proceed to proudly say ‘sure’ — ‘sure’ to a bit of extra housing in each neighborhood.
The adjustments we’re proposing will do extra than simply add new buildings. The Division of Metropolis Planning estimates that our Metropolis of Sure plan might produce as many as 108,850 new houses over the subsequent 15 years. These will not be simply numbers, they’re houses that may permit New Yorkers to remain within the metropolis they love, retire within the communities they grew up in, and welcome new generations of younger folks, households, and immigrants.
We all know that New Yorkers really feel strongly in regards to the character of their neighborhoods, and we respect that. That’s why the Division of Metropolis Planning held intensive outreach and engagement with New Yorkers, together with holding 10 public data classes and two years of conferences with impacted stakeholders to verify we did this proper. We wish to construct extra and defend what New Yorkers love about their neighborhood, and we are able to do exactly that. Metropolis of Sure permits us to satisfy this disaster head on and make sure that nobody neighborhood has to hold the accountability of delivering all of the housing town wants.
From the very begin of this administration, we’ve got been advocating for daring, forward-thinking options to ship the housing that New Yorkers want and make our metropolis extra inexpensive. We’ve got already notched essential victories, together with creating the second-most new inexpensive houses in a single 12 months, producing probably the most new supportive houses and houses for previously homeless New Yorkers ever, and connecting extra New Yorkers than ever earlier than to everlasting houses with CityFHEPS housing vouchers.
Collectively, with the Metropolis Council, we just lately delivered an adopted funds that invests $2 billion extra in capital funds throughout Fiscal 12 months 2025 and 2026 to the Division of Housing Preservation and Growth and the New York Metropolis Housing Authority’s capital budgets. In whole, our administration has dedicated a file $26 billion in housing capital within the present 10-year plan, making certain that our bucks go in direction of fixing this housing disaster.
It’s time for a strong new housing agenda — one which acknowledges the necessity to construct extra housing is extra essential than preserving the outdated methods of doing issues. By constructing a bit of extra housing in each neighborhood, we are able to set our metropolis heading in the right direction for a extra equitable and inexpensive future. Our administration is saying ‘sure’ and we’re calling on the Metropolis Council this fall to face with us and vote ‘sure’ for the Metropolis of Sure for Housing Alternative.
