Gotham Gazette

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Affordable Housing

Affordable Housing

  • What Happened to the Sunnyside Yard Master Plan?

    Rendering of the Sunnyside Yard Master Plan


    In March 2020, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration and Amtrak released the Sunnyside Yard Master Plan, an ambitious $14 billion infrastructure project that would deck the 180-acre rail yard in Queens and effectively create a new community with thousands of affordable homes and dozens of acres of green and public space situated atop a new regional rail hub.

    But the plan was released at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, just before the city and state went into lockdown, economic activity slowed to a crawl, and every city infrastructure project was put on

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  • In a ‘City of Yes,’ We Can’t Say No to Land Use Equity

    Mayor Adams talks housing (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    In the spring, the Adams administration announced “City of Yes,” a package of citywide zoning text amendments that ostensibly aim to advance affordable housing, jobs, and sustainability. ANHD applauds the recognition that a citywide

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  • The City Council’s First Test to be The City of Yes We All Need

    New housing (photo: @NYCHousing)


    The housing market in New York City is more unaffordable than ever. How we got here may be complicated, including decades of zoning barriers to building affordable housing and insufficient overall production, but the way out is simple: every neighborhood must do its part to add to our affordable housing supply, without exception or delay. Rejecting the outdated attitude of “no” is the only

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  • An Opportunity for Progress in Combating the City’s Housing Crisis

    A rendering of The Lirio


    The ongoing affordable housing crisis in New York City requires bold solutions. We must house more people, especially in vulnerable populations. In Hell’s Kitchen we have an opportunity to do just that with The Lirio, a newly proposed 112-unit affordable housing development, which will include affordable homes for long-term survivors of HIV/AIDS.

    New York City has been in an immense housing crisis for decades. Although our population and job demand have grown, we haven’t built enough housing to keep up. Now we

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  • The Decimation of Roe Makes the Need for Affordable Housing More Urgent Than Ever

    An abortion rights rally in New York (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)


    The Supreme Court’s horrific decision to overturn Roe is not only a severe blow to women’s autonomy over their bodies, it is a powerful reminder that addressing the real impacts of sexism and gender inequality is not on the national agenda as much as it should be.

    Right now, women — especially women already living paycheck to paycheck — are at serious risk of falling off the economic cliff, resulting in dire consequences not just for them, but for their families and communities. For most people, including women, housing

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  • Public Advocate Releases Plan to 'End Systemic Homelessness' in New York City by 2026

    Public Advocate Williams and Committee members on Friday (photo: @nycpa)


    A coalition led by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has released a four-year roadmap to “ending homelessness as we know it,” proposing several strategies to help the roughly 55,000 unhoused people in the city move into stable, affordable housing.

    Williams, a Democrat, released the new report alongside housing experts and individuals impacted by homelessness outside his Manhattan offices on Friday. He said that mayoral administrations have often focused on moving homeless people from the streets and subways into

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  • New York’s Housing Crisis is Worse Than Ever; It’s Time to Send in the Cavalry

    Housing to be built (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    New York’s housing crisis is at a fever pitch – and there is new data to prove it. In a newreport, the national pro-housing group Up For Growth found that New York State’s housing shortage worsened dramatically during the 2010s.

    The Empire State was

    Stepping Up Suburban Housing Easier Said Than Done

    Belmont and beyond, on Long Island (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    To housing advocates, the solution to the New York City region’s affordability crisis is frustratingly simple enough: build, build, build, and build some more. To them, the suburbs and the single-family homeowners therein serve as selfishly guarded relics from an era long ago that aren’t doing their fair share.

    But painting the long vexing issue of housing affordability with such a supply-side broad brush ignores a fundamental tenet of sound

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  • New Housing Blueprint Gives LGBTQ New Yorkers Another Reason to Celebrate

    Pride (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    This June in New York City unfolded with a welcome, if not obviously connected, set of events: Pride Month, and the newHousing Blueprint from the administration of Mayor Eric Adams. As two transgender advocates who worked together last year on an...

  • New Brownsville Complex Offers Housing for Formerly Incarcerated Individuals, Dent in New York's Prison-to-Shelter Pipeline

    The Marcus Garvey Extension Project (photo: The Osborne Association)


    A new supportive housing development with 52 units designated for recently incarcerated individuals is now open in Brownsville, Brooklyn. This past week, the Osborne Association, a nonprofit focused on helping justice-involved people, celebrated the opening of their first housing initiative of its kind, part of their broader $179 million Marcus Garvey Extension Project.

    The effort to provide stable, permanent housing for those who have recently been incarcerated

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  • Democratic and Republican Candidates for Governor Offer Varied Housing Plans

    New York City (photo: Governor's Office)


    New Yorkers are voting this month in the Democratic and Republican primaries for Governor as the state grapples with an affordable housing crisis that has hit downstate regions home to some two-thirds of its population the hardest. The issue has been far more elevated among the three Democratic candidates to lead the state for the next four years, with the four Republican candidates largely ignoring the topic. That trend changed somewhat when Gotham Gazette asked the Republican campaigns about the issue.

    Candidates on both sides of the aisle do

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  • Rent Guidelines Board Votes Through Rent Increases for 1 Million NYC Apartments

    Housing in the Bronx (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Update: On Tuesday evening, the Rent Guidelines Board voted 5-4 to approve rent increases of 3.25% on one-year leases and 5% on two-year leases for the roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments in New York City.

    Many elected officials quickly condemned the decision, calling the increases too high, though they are lower than what the board's independent analysis showed building owners need to cover rising costs. Still, many

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  • 'Housing Cannot Be A Privilege': Mayor Adams Releases Highly-Anticipated Housing Plan

    Mayor Adams building housing (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Five-and-a-half months into his administration, Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday released a comprehensive plan for housing and homelessness that aims to build new mixed-income rental housing, preserve existing affordable units, improve public housing stock, expedite the creation of supportive housing, cut red tape that prevents homeless people from accessing housing, and help New Yorkers buy affordable homes. 

    The mayor’s plan, dubbed “Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness,” reflects a paradigm shift from

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  • Max Politics Podcast: What Building Owners Want from the Rent Guidelines Board and Policy-Makers

    Housing New York City (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    June 14, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: What Building Owners Want from the Rent Guidelines Board and Policy-Makers

    Jay Martin, executive director of CHIP, The Community Housing Improvement Program, which represents 4,000 owners and managers of over 400,000 rent-stabilized rental properties in New York City, joined the show to discuss what his members want to see from the NYC Rent Guidelines Board and policy-makers at the city and state levels.

    Listen to the conversation and let us know what

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  • The Suburbs Need to Finally Step Up in New York Housing Crisis

    Housing in view (photo: Governor's Office)


    It is easy to focus on New York City proper when thinking about the affordable housing crisis. Initial findings from the city’s triennialHousing and Vacancy Survey, for example, show that

    Little Being Done to Address New York’s Prison-to-Shelter Pipeline

    A housing rally (photo:John McCarten/City Council)


    Two out of five people returning to New York City from prison last year were released to a shelter or another placement for homeless adults, according to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS). At roughly 2,050 people, it was enough to fill the largest hotel in midtown Manhattan. They often ended up sleeping on the streets.

    Those inside the so-called prison-to-shelter pipeline say cycling through the criminal legal and shelter systems is destabilizing and dehumanizing as they attempt to reenter

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  • Albany Can Give New York City More Power to Fix the Housing Crisis

    Housing in focus (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    State lawmakers clearly understand that New York faces an emergency-level housing crisis and have acted accordingly: adopting a five-year housing plan to invest $25 billion in affordable and supportive housing across the state. But the job is not over, there are several important housing bills under consideration that would help New York City fight the housing crisis.

    In the final days of the state legislative session, Albany has a chance to help the city

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  • Tenants are Struggling; New York Needs Good Cause Eviction Now

    Tenants in New York City (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Tenants in New York are struggling. Rent prices are through the roof, rising more than 30% from last year. People are getting kicked out of their homes at rates we haven’t seen since before the pandemic.

    Add to this the growing costs of

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  • Affordability, Good Cause Eviction, and the Costs of the Housing Ecosystem

    Housing (photo: Edwin J. Torres/ Mayor's Office)


    No matter who you are, these past two years have been difficult for New Yorkers across the state. The COVID-19 pandemic was not only a health crisis where we lost tens of thousands of our loved ones, but also an affordability crisis. Too many of our neighbors lost jobs, routines, social connections, and more. Hundreds of thousands were thrown into economic instability, made even more difficult by circumstances that predated the pandemic: the housing crisis. 

    Everywhere you

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  • 'Real Affordability and Supply Challenges': Adams Administration Officials Outline Housing Priorities

    Mayor Adams and others at a development ground-breaking (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Mayor Eric Adams promised on Thursday that in the coming week, he will release a comprehensive housing plan to address New York City’s affordable housing crisis and rebuild its crumbling public housing stock. Adams spoke at the annual conference of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH), where officials from his administration appeared on expert panels to discuss the challenges of building affordable housing in the city and further preview some of the strategies that

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  • ‘When we line up behind issues they’re going to get over the finish line’: City Council Progressive Caucus Co-Chairs on Priorities and Positioning

    Lincoln Restler & Shahana Hanif (photos: John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit)


    The newly-seated 51-member New York City Council has a particularly large progressive wing, with a whopping 34 members, including Speaker Adrienne Adams, signing up for the Progressive Caucus. That caucus, which seeks to pull the Council leftward and is already acting as a counterweight to a more moderate mayor, especially on policing issues, is led by co-chairs Shahana Hanif and Lincoln Restler, two Brooklyn Democrats selected by their fellow caucus members.

    At City Council Budget Hearing, Commissioner Previews Adams Housing Plan

    Housing (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    In his State of the City speech last month, Mayor Eric Adams promised that he would in the coming weeks release a comprehensive housing plan to address perhaps the most intractable problem facing New York. At a hearing of the City Council on Monday, housing officials from his administration outlined the main principles of that agenda and gave a preview of the city's broad approach to building affordable and supportive housing, preserving public housing, and tackling the homelessness crisis.  

    Monday’s hearing concerned the

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  • Max Politics Podcast: Solving New York City's 'Housing Problem,' with Two Veterans of the Trenches

    Construction underway (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    April 29, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Solving New York City's 'Housing Problem,' with Two Veterans of the Trenches

    Rafael Cestero, CEO of the Community Preservation Corporation and former Commissioner of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and Kirk Goodrich, President of Monadnock Development and chair of the NYS Association for Affordable Housing, joined the show to discuss New York City's 'Housing Problem,' which is also the name of their podcast miniseries, and how to solve it. The

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  • In Updated Budget, Adams Fails to Follow Through on Housing and Parks Funding Promises

    Mayor Adams (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday released a $99.7 billion executive budget proposal, a $1.2 billion increase from his February preliminary budget. Though Adams committed billions more in funding for housing and hundreds of millions for the parks department, he nonetheless failed to abide by major pledges he made while running for mayor last year. 

    As a mayoral candidate, Adams made sweeping promises for how he would lead the city. But on two fronts he was particularly

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  • Max Politics Podcast: City Council Member Pierina Sanchez on Solving NYC's Housing Crisis

    City Council Member Pierina Sanchez (photo: Gerardo Romo/NYC Council)


    April 27, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: City Council Member Pierina Sanchez on Solving NYC's Housing Crisis

    City Council Member Pierina Sanchez, a Bronx Democrat and chair of the Council's Committee on Housing and Buildings, joined the show to discuss her priorities in solving the city's housing crisis.

    Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or

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