The Housing & Homelessness Plan.

Housing is a basic human right.
The housing crisis touches every New Yorker. The pandemic has laid bare the realities of housing insecurity and homelessness, and we must seize this opportunity to finally end them. We need a bold citywide housing plan and a massive expansion of low-income and affordable housing to overcome the severity of the crisis and redefine what it means for housing to be ‘affordable’. We need to fund and rehabilitate NYCHA. We must create a housing landscape that encourages socioeconomic and racial diversity and ensures that this city is an affordable and safe place for all.

Expand Affordable Housing

 

Rezone and Repurpose Commercial Office Space

The pandemic has led to a surplus of newly vacant commercial office space. We can turn lemons into lemonade by rezoning and transforming that real estate into residential space, while protecting space for artists and small businesses.

Develop City-owned Land

The City currently owns thousands of undedicated parcels of land. That land can be committed to Community Land Trusts to work with non-profit developers to build permanent low-income and affordable housing. The Comptroller estimates this could create as many as 53,116 new units.

Streamline Basement Apartment Conversions

We can create as many as 210,000 new units within city limits by expanding the City’s Basement Apartment Conversion Pilot Program, which modifies zoning and streamlines the permit process to make it easier for owners of one- and two-family homes to add attic, basement, or garage apartments. That’s more housing than was produced during the entirety of the last decade!

Redefine Affordable Housing

The metric by which the City calculates eligibility for affordable housing does not serve the population of New York City residents who need it. We must redefine affordable housing pricing standards to ensure it is truly affordable and accessible to New Yorkers of all income levels.

Better Serve New Yorkers with Disabilities

We need to expand independent and integrated living options for New Yorkers with disabilities. We must reduce the financial, technological, and physical barriers to access affordable housing.

Transition Away From Mandatory Inclusionary Housing

As long as the City centers the needs of commercial developers in the conversation around “affordable housing” it will only continue to develop and promote programs that ultimately serve to enrich developers. This is why Mandatory Inclusionary Housing has failed. Ultimately, this approach gives away far more than the City’s ROI, and damages the fabric of communities by contributing to gentrification and displacement. It is time to center the needs of residents and communities over commercial interest. 

Create Public Banking and Empower Home Ownership

Under the current private big banking system that prioritizes profit, home ownership is out of reach for many city residents. By creating a public municipal banking system dedicated to investing in communities, we can expand credit services in low income neighborhoods. Additionally, we can expand down payment assistance programs to make home ownership possible for more New Yorkers.

 Implement a Pied-a-terre Tax

We must implement a tax on empty and overpriced luxury condos, owned by shell companies controlled by people who don’t live in this city, that inflate the price of housing for the rest of us. We can use the revenue to fund affordable housing initiatives

Replace the Tax Lien Sale with a Community Focused Approach

For over 20 years, the City has sold tax liens, or property tax debt, to Wall Street costing the City billions in back tax revenue, displacing families, and creating obstacles to retaining and increasing the affordable housing stock. We will work to replace the current system with a not-for-profit model, relying on Community Land Trusts to keep money in our communities, retain affordability, give residents reasonable methods to pay their back taxes, and take back the power from predatory debt sellers and developers. People win, communities win, and the City wins.

End Homelessness

 

Expand and Prioritize Permanent Supportive Housing

The City’s current shelter system is meant to be temporary and too often those it serves end up on the streets. By transitioning away from a temporary shelter system, we can get more New Yorkers experiencing homelessness off the street and into permanent supportive housing.

Create Transparency and Root Out Corruption

Over the decades, NYC administrations have implemented a variety of efforts aimed at curbing homelessness. With the City’s homeless expenditures rising to over $3.2 billion, and corruption rising along with it, the City Council must create a robust audit and review system aimed at tracking every dollar spent by the Department of Homeless Services while simultaneously ensuring that those dollars are spent on meaningful and effective programs.

Streamline the Process For Securing Housing

DHS policies create regulatory hurdles and require prolonged periods of waiting before those experiencing homelessness can qualify for housing. We must streamline the process for moving New Yorkers living on the streets into available housing.

Strengthen Kendra’s Law

Individuals with serious mental illness must be able to access critical mental health services. Under New York State’s Kendra’s Law, courts can order these individuals to stay in assisted outpatient treatment for up to a year while continuing to live in the community. Studies show that Kendra’s Law reduces homelessness by 74% and keeps the public safer by reducing physical harm to others by 47%. By reducing hospitalization and incarceration, Kendra’s Law saves taxpayers 50% of the cost of care. We must work with the Department of Homeless Services to promote, fund, and strengthen Kendra’s Law so families can get their loved ones the care they need.

Improving NYCHA

 

Finish Repairs and Remove Scaffolding

Standing for years in expectation of long-delayed repairs, thousands of feet of scaffolding and shedding create dark, dirty, and dangerous conditions around NYCHA housing. We will work to limit the time scaffolding can remain in place and expedite the repair process. 

Ensure NYCHA Residents Have Access to Affordable Groceries

With the loss of the Western Beef grocery store, Amsterdam Houses has become a ‘food desert’. We will work to ensure its replacement offers affordable groceries to the local community. It is time for the City to prioritize and assist with the creation of food co-ops that engage specifically with NYCHA residents. Through this process, NYCHA residents can create sustainable food sources, improving access to healthy food while creating jobs and equity in their neighborhood services.  

Lobby for Capital Improvements

It is imperative that we improve the quality of life in NYCHA housing. We must lobby the federal government to fully fund NYCHA’s capital improvements, to make NY’s public housing a desirable place to live.

Ensure Oversight Over the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Program

NYCHA residences desperately need renovations and repairs, but they cannot come at the expense of residents’ autonomy. We need to ensure that the private management companies where RAD has already been implemented operate with full transparency and appropriate oversight.

Facilitate Community Investment

NYCHA is more than just its buildings. We must invest in the communities themselves by creating workforce development, like the Residential Economic Empowerment & Sustainability (REES) program and Resident Leadership Academy, for NYCHA residents. 

Redesign and Rebuild NYCHA Spaces

The needs of a community change over time. We can empower NYCHA residents, as has been done successfully with London’s public housing, to work directly with developers to demolish the current stock and rebuild developments to include mixed-use and new market-rate units to fund the rehabilitation needs of the current public housing units.