New York City Mayor Eric Adams is looking to build on his recent housing wins with a new plan aimed at creating more homes for families across the city through zoning changes, and a suite of new policies and programs intended to help people afford to stay in the city.
The plan, dubbed “City of Yes for Families,” will be announced at Adams’ fourth State of the City speech at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem Thursday. City Hall shared details of the proposal with City & State in advance under the conditions that we didn’t reach out to anyone outside of the administration for comment prior to the embargo lifting. While technically separate from the mayor’s marquee City of Yes for Housing Opportunity plan passed by the City Council in December, the proposal is intended to build on the latter’s victories in a way specifically intended to benefit families. But it won’t just be through zoning changes.
Leila Bozorg, executive director for housing in the mayor’s office, said the plan will take a “multi-pronged approach” to helping families pay their rent and purchase a home as so many struggle to remain in the city. “Different problems require different solutions, and we know that being a more family friendly city requires tools way beyond zoning,” Bozorg said. “There will be housing initiatives.”
While the Adams administration has yet to share a full picture of what this effort will look like, one specific project shared by City Hall will involve the New York City Public Library and the Adams administration working together to bring more than 800 units of mixed-income housing in Manhattan Valley at the Bloomingdale Library location. A similar co-located library project – albeit on a smaller scale – was completed over the summer in Inwood.
Expanding the number of family size units in some affordable housing buildings and making it easier to allow intergenerational housing in senior housing are some of the policy changes the Adams administration intends to roll out as part of the plan.
The Adams administration is also looking to add more tools to support homeownership, including expanding the Down Payment Assistance Program so more families are eligible, launching a credit building initiative to make it easier for rental payments to count toward building credit, and tax exemption for people who build an extra mini-apartment on their property called an accessory dwelling unit. The city’s goal is to support 30,000 homeowners over the next five years through these and other homeowner initiatives and programs, according to Bozorg.
Some of the proposed zoning changes the Adams administration said it would work on with the City Council include making it easier to co-locate schools with residential buildings across the city, finding ways to expand the Food Retail Expansion Program to Support Health to more neighborhoods, creating more accessible transit stations, and expanding the city’s Privately Owned Public Spaces so more neighborhoods can get access to bonuses that’ll help bring playgrounds and public spaces.
“We are looking forward to working with the council on this and getting other ideas that we can build into the proposal,” Bozorg said.
The latest effort comes as the city faces a dire housing crisis – both in affordability and volume of apartments available.
“A home is the foundation families need to grow and thrive in our city. Yet, for too many, stable, affordable housing feels out of reach. Last year, we said ‘yes’ to a new generation of housing across New York City, and this year, we will say ‘yes’ to building more family-friendly neighborhoods as well,” Adams said in a statement. “Together, we can bring the dream of affordable housing for every New Yorker closer to reality and make New York City the best place to raise a family.”