Open New York Testimony before the Committee on Housing and Buildings on the Mayor’s Housing Plan
July 1st, 2022
Thank you Chair Sanchez and members of the Committee on Housing and Buildings for the opportunity to respond to Mayor Adams’ recently released housing plan.
My name is Logan Phares and I serve as the Political Director of Open New York. Open New York is an independent, grassroots, pro-housing organization. We are working to bring about a New York that is affordable for all who wish to live here, including those who wish to stay in neighborhoods they already call home. We realize this vision by advocating for abundant, affordable, and quality housing.
New York City is in the midst of a profound housing crisis, generations in the making. Home ownership opportunities are out of reach for most New Yorkers. At any given time during the last decade, more than half of New York City households were rent-burdened. Today, rents are even higher than they were prior to the pandemic, with only 23% of New Yorkers making enough income to even afford the median rent in the city.
From 2010 to 2020, NYC’s population grew at double the rate that we built more housing. There aren’t enough homes for everyone who lives or wants to live in New York. This gap is the biggest driver of the skyrocketing home and rental costs: more homebuilding has fallen desperately behind levels that are needed to lower or even stabilize prices.
We believe the roots of this crisis are entirely political — New York’s overly strict zoning laws prevent us from building the housing we need. As such, we were excited to hear just how the Mayor plans to use his political power to address our housing emergency in his highly-anticipated housing plan.
First, we’d like to point out that there is a lot to like in this plan. Throughout the plan, it is clear that the Mayor and his Administration recognize that the city’s lack of housing is the root of the housing crisis. To put it simply, we don’t have enough homes for the people who live here or want to live here. That drives up prices, forces people to overcrowd into smaller apartments, and knocks too many out of homes entirely.
In addition, the Mayor clearly knows that there is no silver bullet to addressing our housing shortage, and that many factors together have collectively caused housing costs to skyrocket. As such, we are very happy to see a variety of policies proposed to address different but exacerbatory issues, looking to address rising construction costs in addition to outdated rules that prevent new and more affordable types of housing. Even small code changes from allowing mini-splits on facades to single-stair buildings could significantly lower the construction costs that are later passed off to tenants and prevent the deepest levels of affordability.
As for regulatory reform, the Mayor proposes updating codes to allow for more diverse housing across the city through micro apartments, single room occupancy units (SROs), and accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Allowing for more diverse housing options has the potential to go a long way toward creating more affordable options for New Yorkers. We were especially excited to see the Mayor’s plan call for reforming New York’s outdated parking requirements, which drive up rents and housing costs while taking up space that could be used to create more units.
All that said, given the scale and urgency of the housing and affordability crisis, we feel the Blueprint leaves much to be desired. It lacks transparency, timelines, or metrics necessary for tracking progress. Most alarming is the lack of a general target for housing production. Certainly the number of units should not be the only measure of success, but it ought to be one of them, and this plan lacks other important metrics as well. Without these necessary details about how the plan should be implemented and measured, it leaves our dedicated City agencies ill-equipped to tackle our housing crisis head-on.
Another area of concern is the plan’s dependence on a forthcoming housing-focused text amendment, one of three, which was later announced would not be proposed until 2024. To be clear, changing our city’s zoning resolution does take time, but the Mayor must share his plans to create new housing over the next two years. There are clear steps the Administration can take while preparing the text amendment. He should support and propose neighborhood rezonings in those communities that have not done their fair share of building. He should instruct the Department of City Planning to create and enforce Community Board housing targets.
A true “City of Yes” includes these obvious steps. Addressing our housing emergency can’t wait any longer
New York City has always flourished through new housing creation, and this plan indicates an awareness that our city will never fully thrive until everyone can afford their rent or fulfill their dreams of home ownership. In order for New Yorkers — present and future — to say ‘yes’ to living in New York City, we must do everything we can to open up pathways to new home creation and recognize this moment as a historic opportunity to build housing to benefit the city as whole.
We look forward to working with the Administration and the Council to create the housing our city so desperately needs. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Logan Phares
Political Director, Open New York
lphares@opennewyork.city
