New York Zohran Mamdani plans to oversee the construction of 200,000 affordable homes across the five boroughs, a major undertaking that will require new builds, hotel, and office building conversions, and widespread rezoning.
Business Insider reported that to control costs and limit red tape, his administration is encouraging new development on existing public land, such as converting libraries into mixed-use buildings or building on unused parking lots.
If the plan is successful, Business Insider said that a supply boom could help lower-income New Yorkers access housing and put downward pressure on overall prices.
The goal is to identify public sites to support at least 25,000 new affordable housing units over 10 years, Business Insider reported. It noted that 10 projects that are likely to yield a few thousand apartments are currently in planning and development stages.
‘Not a Silver Bullet’
Jake Krimmel, Senior Economist at Realtor.com, noted that building on city-owned property is “not a silver bullet,” but it’s an option.
Most New Yorkers spend more than 30% of their income on housing, the threshold economists define as unaffordable.
Business Insider noted that it has heard from single moms who moved in together to save on rent, parents who are making just above the threshold for benefits, and six-figure earners struggling to make ends meet.
It reported that the city owns and leases a huge amount of land, but not all of it is suitable for housing.
“A lot of the city-owned land is not necessarily the easiest thing to build on because of zoning rules or parcel sizes and shapes,” Krimmel said.
An analysis by the New York University Furman Center showed that about 10,000 of the 15,000 plots in NYC’s portfolio are currently zoned for residential use. It said that a third of city-owned lots are overseen by the Department of Parks and Recreation, which suggests they already may be in use as parks, open public spaces, or sports facilities.
Krimmel noted that a very limited number of vacant lots in the city clear both the size and zoning bar for housing, which means the city will need to get creative with existing developments.
Krimmel suggested stacking housing on top of civic buildings where possible.
He also said that a public land construction push won’t solve all of NYC’s housing problems, but “if you’re trying to make good policies, you need to leave no stone unturned.”
Krimmel said that the city turning to existing public land is a good idea, although selling it to developers for affordable housing use could be another financially-smart option.
Plan Will Need Plenty of Support to Succeed
“The city has valuable assets on its books,” Krimmel said. “The question is whether it deploys them by building itself or whether it attaches affordability requirements, upzones, and lets other developers carry the financing and operations.”
Business Insider noted that to reach its goal of 200,000 new affordable units, the city will also need support and resources from City Council, state government in Albany, private developers, and taxpayers.
In the meantime, the Mayor’s Office hopes its proposed rent freeze, universal 2-K childcare program, fast and free bus pitch, and other affordability initiatives will help lower New Yorkers’ cost of living.
Mamdani has said that these initiatives go hand-in-hand with housing access.
Last month, for example, he told a crowd in Queens: “We will no longer speak in the language of promise. We will speak in the language of the present. We will build more homes.”
