A New Housing ‘Blueprint’ for New York City

New York City Mayor Eric Adams released a new housing plan that targets housing affordability and homelessness with five major initiatives, according to an article by Mathew Haag, Dana Rubinstein, and Andy Newman for the New York Times.

 The five initiatives outlines in “Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness”:

1. Transform New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)
2. Address Homelessness and Housing Instability
3. Create and Preserve Affordable Housing
4. Improve the Health and Safety of New Yorkers
5. Reduce Administrative Burden

The New York Times article points out a conspicuous lack of detail for each of those five initiatives: “Some are not guaranteed, such as rewriting the city’s zoning laws to allow for larger affordable-housing developments and expanding the number of one-bedroom units for single adults.” The plan also lacks a specific goal for how many people would stand to gain new access to housing through the plan.

The mayor has already supported new funding for housing in the city, however, reflecting the priority of the issue for the Adams administration: “The plan was released the day after the City Council approved a new city budget, negotiated with the mayor, that will add $5 billion over 10 years for the city’s affordable housing programs, bringing its total investment in affordable housing to $22 billion over that period. That is a historically high number.”

The Adams administration also recently announced a new “City of Yes” zoning reform proposal, designed to support housing and business opportunities while also promoting sustainability measures in the city’s building stock.

The “Housing Our Neighbors” blueprint follows in the footsteps of other major mayoral initiatives to address housing affordability. Adams’s predecessor Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed the “Housing New York” plan to create or protect 200,000 affordable units.