New Yorkers voted to approve several housing ballot questions as part of this year’s general election. After turning out in record numbers on Tuesday, voters elected Zohran Mamdani as the city’s next mayor and voted yes on four proposals aimed at redesigning the process for building more housing across the five boroughs, as the city faces a housing shortage and affordability crisis.

• You're not just electing a new mayor: New Yorkers will vote on how affordable housing is built in NYC

• Three proposals aim to speed up certain affordable developments and curb ‘hyperlocal perspectives’

Andrew Fine, the policy director of Open New York, the city’s most prominent YIMBY organization, told me that outgoing Mayor Adams’s relative success in getting housing built had much to do with the passage of a 2019 law that strengthened tenant protections. The law, Fine said, made progressive legislators more comfortable with pro-building policies.

New York City is living through its worst housing affordability crisis in a century. While the City and State distribute billions of dollars in housing subsidies each year, maintain the most robust rent-stabilization program in the nation and sustain a public housing system that is home to a population larger than many cities, almost all of the personal outcomes associated with housing here are terrible.

Adams’ Charter Revision Commission has proposed measures to accelerate affordable housing production in the parts of the city that have produced the least, a move that has drawn criticism from councilmembers and community boards.

Annemarie Gray, the executive director of Open New York, a nonprofit group that supports development, called the proposals “thoughtful and impactful.” She said her group will mobilize voters to help pass the measures in November.

Annemarie Gray, the executive director of Open New York, a nonprofit group that supports development, called the proposals “thoughtful and impactful.” She said her group will mobilize voters to help pass the measures in November.

Mayor Eric Adams and other city leaders painted the move as a win-win: the 123 affordable apartments will be shuffled to a nearby block and the garden will not be disturbed. (The senior housing development plan, dubbed Haven Green, also included plans for green space.)

Amid a housing crisis, Mayor Eric Adams made a signature push for more apartments, spearheading zoning changes as part of a goal to build half a million new homes, even over the objections of some local community leaders.

But the Adams administration on Monday nixed the long-planned development of 123 affordable apartments for seniors on city-owned land in Lower Manhattan, known as Haven Green, at the Elizabeth Street Garden in NoHo.

“Sometimes the YIMBY or abundance movements can feel abstract, especially in national races,” said Annemarie Gray, executive director of Open New York. “Local races — especially City Council races — is really where the rubber meets the road.”

The organization’s advocacy  arm is among the funders of the Abundant New York committee, which has spent more than $200,000 so far to influence five Council races in Manhattan, Brooklyn and The Bronx. 

“For the first time, we’re seeing every mayoral candidate recognize our housing shortage and include building more homes as part of their housing plan,” says Annemarie Gray, executive director of Open New York, a pro-housing advocacy group. “Four years ago it would have been inconceivable to see every mayoral platform across the spectrum feature strategies to build more homes, and faster.”

In a competitive City Council primary already loaded with outside spending, incumbent Council Member Shahana Hanif will get a six-figure boost from a couple of pro-housing and pro-public space PACs, the groups exclusively told City & State.

The nonprofit housing advocacy group Open New York announced its first round of endorsements on April 7 and said it will spend $500,000 on this year’s key races — more than twice the spending of last election cycle. 

Forty-nine candidates applied for the organization’s endorsement, which said in a statement that it is “only endorsing candidates who are both strongly aligned with pro-housing values, and are in races where an endorsement, resources and member mobilization could meaningfully influence the outcome.”

Open New York, a housing-focused nonprofit that advocates for more development, launched a political arm last year with a super PAC called Abundant New York. After spending roughly $250,000 in state legislative races, the PAC is doubling down with a plan to spend at least $500,000 in this year’s City Council races. The PAC will wade into some of the most competitive races this year, backing incumbent Council Member Shahana Hanif, who is facing a tough primary challenge in Brooklyn, and Open New York member Ben Wetzler in the crowded primary race to replace Council Member Keith Powers in Manhattan, among others.

The so-called Arrow Linen proposal had all the makings of the sort of fight that has become familiar in middle-class parts of the city with enough political influence to alter or defeat unpopular projects. It was subject to more than a year of contentious debate.

Yet the conclusion demonstrates just how much the politics around development have started to morph as the housing crunch has become one of the city’s most pressing crises.

“City of Yes highlighted what municipal-led initiatives can achieve,” said Annemarie Gray, who used to work in planning and housing policy for the city under the de Blasio and Adams administrations and now serves as the executive director of Open New York, a nonprofit that supports housing expansion. But what is necessary going forward, in her view, are aggressive measures taken at the level of the governor’s office and the State Legislature.

Open New York’s Annemarie Gray told The Real Deal Friday that the commitment to building more housing shows an “undeniable consensus that the root of our housing crisis is a housing shortage.” 

Open New York, a group that advocates for more housing in New York State, declared, "the housing debate in the Democratic Party is over."

Samir Lavingia, campaign coordinator of Open New York, a pro-housing nonprofit, believes the rezoning policy is the answer to the city’s housing shortage crisis. “Evictions have increased, asking rents have skyrocketed and newly issued building permits have plummeted. The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity offers a once-in-a-generation chance to reverse these trends,” Lavingia said. 

“Nothing on the table was tackling the status quo of allowing local governments absolute power to ban new homes,” said Annemarie Gray, executive director of the pro-development group Open New York