The City issued Executive Order 43 requiring all City agencies to review City-owned and controlled land for potential housing development sites as the Big Apple faces an affordable housing crisis with a rental vacancy rate of just 1.4%.
This resolution will help support Mayor Eric Adams’ administration’s ambitious goal of building 500,000 new homes by 2032.
“If there is any land under the control of the city that has even the slightest potential, we will take action,” the mayor said.
This order has already gone into effect, establishing the City’s Housing Activation Task Force, with representatives from City agencies and other public entities. In addition, guidelines will be developed to ensure that housing production is promoted.
All locations that can be used to promote the production of housing solutions without disrupting municipal operations will be considered.
“Based on our ‘Yes City for Housing Opportunities’ proposal and the state government’s progress to increase housing production, we will be able to develop underutilized land,” said Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce.
The Adams administration advocated for new tools in New York’s 2024 state budget that would spur the creation of urgently needed units.
Unlocking areas
These measures include a new tax incentive for the construction of multifamily rental solutions, a tax incentive program to encourage office conversions to create more affordable units, the removal of the “floor-to-area ratio” limit that held back affordable housing production in certain high-demand areas, and the ability to create a pilot program to legalize and make basement apartments safe.
For his part, Anthony W. Marx, president and CEO of the New York Public Library, commented that innovative solutions continue to emerge to unblock the construction of affordable housing.
“Our state-of-the-art Inwood library includes highly affordable housing units, and the proposed redevelopment of our Grand Concourse library will have a similar layout. We are excited to explore all options to address this urgent issue.”
Similarly, Dr. Mitchell Katz, president of NYC Health + Hospitals, has initially estimated that more than 650 new affordable housing units will be created on hospital land.