An Affordable City

To truly address the poverty and economic insecurity facing countless New Yorkers, we must begin by addressing the City’s staggering housing and affordability crisis. In a city where over 400,000 tenants call public housing home, and 44% living in market-rate apartments are rent burdened, we need to take bold steps that drastically grow the city’s affordable housing supply while also reinvesting in NYCHA.

As the owner and operator of roughly 175,000 public-housing units, the City of New York is both the largest and, in many ways, its most neglectful landlord in the five boroughs. Following decades of disinvestment, New York’s over 300 public housing developments are in an unacceptable state of disrepair, with over $30 billion needed to address their issues.

As we work to engage in the necessary repairs to our public housing, the Yang administration will invest in innovative solutions to create affordable housing across the City. This includes allowing communities to lead the charge in creating rezoning and development plans so that communities maintain their identity while expanding our affordable housing stock. Community Land Trusts (CLTs) can be proactively supported, with City Hall not just allocating funds to them but prioritizing them for land acquisition and the allocation of vacant public lots. Embracing co-living and allowing for single-room occupancy (SRO) living spaces will allow individuals to find housing that works for their lives and their budget.

And as we’re bringing down the cost of living in the City and improving our public housing stock, we can also tackle the homelessness crisis. For the first time, there are more empty rooms than there are homeless families. Instead of overpaying for hotel rooms, we can take advantage of this to provide a short-term solution with an eye towards providing transitional services to help all New Yorkers keep a roof over their heads and the heads of their children.