In places where residential units are now completely prohibited from being built in the Big Apple, they would be allowed in the near future. Only yes, they pass a series of new legislations.
A municipal proposal that makes way for the creation of “more housing” in each neighborhood, through the first zoning changes proposed in 50 years, began the public review stage this Monday, while New York City faces a horrific crisis of shortage of residential spaces for the working class, with a rental vacancy rate of just 1.4%.
This is the “City of Yes to Housing Opportunities” plan, which adds a new Universal Affordability Preference (PAU) scheme, which would allow buildings to add at least 20% more units, if the additional housing They are affordable for households earning 60% of the area median income.
The New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) released the draft environmental impact statement for the proposal, which estimates it could produce up to 108,850 new homes over the next 15 years. In contrast, for those currently suffering the risks of evictions, the effects of this plan will be long-term, when hundreds of thousands of families have been displaced from their neighborhoods due to the constant increase in the cost of rent.
In simpler words, it is about “opening the door” to the construction or provision of residential spaces, where municipal planning laws currently prohibit it, such as in areas categorized as commercial, or in towers only permitted for development. of corporate offices.
In addition, the path is outlined so that homeowners can convert their internal parking lots into residential areas or build “cabins” in their patios.
In theory, the result in several years would be to create new affordable housing for working families, in high-cost neighborhoods throughout the Big Apple, in places where it is now impossible to build them due to current zoning laws.
“We must think bigger and act faster. And that’s what our plan does. We call on our City Council members to listen to New Yorkers who need more affordable housing and say ‘yes’ to the ‘Yes City,’” said Mayor Eric Adams.
Where… now?
For example, many buildings built after 1961, or outside the city’s largest office centers, cannot be converted into housing.
The ‘City of Yes’ will make it easier for empty offices and other non-residential buildings to become homes, a policy described by the City as “win-win for creating housing” as it increases property values and creates neighborhoods more active and vibrant in areas that have been hit hard by the pandemic crisis.
This strategy would legalize building conversions until 1990 and expand eligibility to anywhere in the city where residential uses are permitted.
It also makes way for commercial buildings to become a wider range of housing types, such as shared units. This would make it possible for old and obsolete commercial buildings to be converted into residential ones.
“The invisible walls that prevent housing in many of our neighborhoods are driving high rents, displacement pressure, homelessness, and creating a power imbalance between landlords and tenants. We look forward to talking to communities across the city about how this proposal would help reduce housing costs across the board,” said Dan Garodnick, director of the New York City Department of City Planning (DCP).
Mixed-use neighborhoods
As this plan describes, New York is a city of neighborhoods, surrounded by commercial corridors with shops and vibrant street life.
In low-density areas of the five boroughs, most of them date back to the 1920s and 1950s, where there are modest apartment buildings with shops on the street and apartments above. However, current zoning prohibits this scheme in many neighborhoods. Meanwhile, companies suffer from a lack of customers and people have to live further away from goods and services.
The criterion of the municipal strategy is that “by legalizing housing, above businesses on all commercial streets in low-density areas, it will create new housing, help neighbors reach small businesses and build vibrant neighborhoods of use mixed”.
End parking mandate
Another change that the ‘City of Yes’ is charting is that New York City currently requires off-street parking along with new housing, even when it is not necessary, reducing housing production and increasing rents.
This housing program would end parking mandates for new housing, as many cities across the country have successfully done.
“The proposal will preserve the option to add parking, but no one will be forced to build unnecessary parking,” the proposal document says verbatim.
More freedom with your own homes
Across the city, small homeowners face challenges due to rising costs and aging homes.
Current regulations limit what New Yorkers can do with their own property, meaning families have to move further away from grandparents or grandchildren, or are forced to live in uncomfortably cramped homes.
Meanwhile, spaces like garages go unused, when improvements could turn them into comfortable homes.
“Accessory dwelling units, such as backyard cabins and garage conversions, can add new housing and support homeowners, without significantly changing the appearance of a neighborhood,” the explanatory documents emphasize.
In this sense, Adolfo Carrión Jr, commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development of the City of New York, described that at this moment, the Big Apple is on the path of continuing to fight against homelessness and the shortage of unprecedented housing, fixing “broken zoning” laws.
“Today we also say: “yes” to ensuring families can live within walking distance of public schools, “yes” to opportunities for voucher holders, “yes” to putting down roots near parks, and “yes” to build communities not just buildings,” concluded the official.
There is nowhere to rent
According to the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the city’s vacancy rate has reached an all-time low of 1.4%, meaning that when people need to move for any reason, they have nowhere to go. . And as a result, landlords are taking advantage of the situation to raise rents even further.
It’s basic economics: with too many people trying to find apartments and not enough supply, prices rise.
According to a report released last spring, half of all Big Apple households do not have income to cover the cost of living. Of the households living below the real cost of living, 79% spent more than 30% of their income to pay rent.
According to some projections as of this week, more than 150,000 New Yorkers are homeless. Another 175,000 are at risk of eviction.
For more than 40 years, job growth has outpaced housing growth, leaving more and more New Yorkers with fewer and fewer options about where to live
“Yes but no”
For community activists, who see up close the displacements that the poorest communities are suffering, in neighborhoods “that used to be” working class, the ‘City of Yes’ plan sounds “very interesting.” But not, for those who have water up to their necks, at this moment.
This is the criterion of Mireya Mayorkas, a 65-year-old Cuban, who grew up in Harlem and collaborates on housing matters with the organization ‘Communities for a Change in NY’.
“I’m not speaking on behalf of anyone. But in my own. What I have seen are neighbors in their 30s and 40s here, who had to go live in New Jersey, while they work in Manhattan. Because when they went to seek relief, to avoid their evictions, they did not get help from anyone,” she clarified.
Mireya believes that legislation to prevent evictions without just cause, in addition to the prohibition of disproportionate increases in rent, are the immediate retaining wall to prevent further displacement.
“These ‘Yes’ programs will have effects when thousands of working families have left. The ‘landlords’, as usual, want to make a lot of money, not guarantee affordable housing for the poorest. The office buildings will be luxury apartments. And income will continue to increase. While our workers have to go to the outskirts, newly arrived migrants are received in central Manhattan hotels. Nobody understands that policy,” concludes the islander.
On the contrary, Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference, calls this strategy “the most comprehensive” to address the recent housing shortage.
“We are incredibly proud to lead a group of more than 130 advocates and providers through our ‘Yes on Housing’ coalition, working closely with the Adams administration and community leaders, to ensure that the proposed zoning changes benefit to all New Yorkers,” he highlighted.
Very few options:
- 1.4% is the average rental housing vacancy in the Big Apple according to the 2023 Housing and Vacancy survey, the most serious since 1968.
- 275,000 new homes were added since 2021, although the market remained extremely tight due to a shortage of long-term housing options and increased demand.