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

“The proposed redevelopment of the Arrow Linen site on Prospect Avenue presents a valuable opportunity to start to address this crisis. The project would transform a sorely underused industrial space and parking lots into hundreds of homes for families near good schools and transit. Many of these homes will be subsidized, allowing low- and middle-income New Yorkers to experience the incredible quality of life Windsor Terrace provides. All of them will be served by elevators and wheelchair accessible, a rarity in our neighborhood with its old housing stock.”

“For the first time in a long time, we saw a majority of speakers speak in favor of more housing in every neighborhood, especially their own,” said Annemarie Gray, executive director at Open New York, a nonprofit advocacy group pressing for more housing.

The pro-development group Open New York recently launched Abundant New York – a separate effort – as an independent expenditure committee for pro-housing and pro-tenant candidates in state and city elections, including 2025.

“If we can do that just 277 more times we can fill the $15b hole in the capital budget,” Open New York, a pro-congestion pricing group, posted to X.

Shrestha’s winning bid was backed by the “Yes in My Backyard” group Open New York,

The rent in New York City is too high. One nonprofit is helping fight for more affordable housing to be created during this housing crisis.

“What we’re seeing is a rapidly shifting consensus toward pro-housing policies,” said Annemarie Gray, the executive director of Open New York, a nonprofit that supports more development and has encouraged its members to apply to sit on community boards.

Jorge Romero, miembro de la organización Open Nueva York, también hizo un llamado a que se respalde el proyecto e insistió en que no se puede detener un programa que creará más unidades de vivienda por detalles que calificó como “egoístas”, cuando la prioridad debe ser levantar más apartamentos.

Over 15 hours, 204 people testified, and 110 of them spoke in favor of the zoning plan, according to an informal count from pro-housing group Open New York.

Flatbush resident Elizabeth Denys, who is a member of pro-housing group Open New York, said they, like many others, is worried their family, friends, and neighbors will be pushed out of the city due to the housing shortage and skyrocketing rents, and their children won’t be able to find somewhere they can afford to live. “I’m really excited about the entirety of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity Initiative, and I urge the City Planning Commission to approve this proposal in its strongest possible form.”

Passing the Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act should have been easy. Who would stand in the way of churches building on their own land? But the state bill ran into resistance from the not-in-my-backyard crowd, according to an op-ed by the legislation’s sponsor, Sen. Andrew Gounardes. “Efforts at preserving an undefined ‘neighborhood character’ usually lack formal criteria and function to advance exclusionary community preferences and even racial bias,” he wrote.