2026 POLICY AGENDA
NYC Policy Agenda
A Mandate for Affordability: A Housing Agenda for New York’s Next Chapter
Turn Voter Mandates Into Real Homes for New Yorkers
NYC voters overwhelmingly said “yes” in November’s election to fast-tracking affordable housing projects, particularly in the 12 Community Districts that have contributed the least towards their fair share of recent housing growth. The next administration should ensure that the will of the voters is fully realized by prioritizing fast-track housing development applications, creating innovative funding mechanisms to increase the number of City-financed projects, and minimizing barriers to affordable housing development, especially in the lowest producing districts.
Issue new Social Housing termsheets at HPD and HDC that include a mix of market-rate and deeply affordable homes. These new projects will spread limited City subsidies over more projects, allowing a larger number of projects to take advantage of the fast-track approvals process created through the passage of Question 2.
Building on the State’s new Housing Acceleration Fund, dedicate at least $250 million in subsidies per year to new Social Housing projects.
Prioritize newly expanded affordable housing tax credits for any projects in the 12 lowest-producing Community Districts.
Institute a moratorium on new historic districts in the 12 lowest-producing Community Districts to prevent bad-faith obstructionism against new housing.
Create a cross-agency task force in City Hall that will accelerate and prioritize review of all permits and approvals for housing projects that qualify under Question 2, as well as dedicated staff to create City-sponsored rezonings in the 12 lowest-producing Community Districts.
Build Homes Where New Yorkers Need Them Most: Near Transit
Even though New Yorkers benefit from access to the best public transit network in the country, our zoning laws still prevent reasonable housing growth in far too many transit-adjacent areas. 70% of residential lots in the Transit Zone contain less than three housing units, an extraordinary underutilization of our city’s most transit-accessible land, and subway ridership remains 25% below pre-COVID levels. It is high time to allow more New Yorkers to live near transit.
While “City of Yes” contained some measures to allow more housing near transit in the lowest-density parts of the city, the final amendments substantially limited their scope and excluded all single-family zones entirely. The next administration should finally correct many of the mistakes that previous administrations made to downzone wide swaths of the outerboroughs, locking in the housing shortage in these areas.
Prioritize rezonings near transit stations in the lowest density, lowest producing community districts. All R1-R5 lots near transit stations should be brought up to at least R6B.
Plan for rezonings along the subway lines with the most capacity for ridership growth, as well as the around the forthcoming IBX line, setting a target housing capacity for each station area.
Rezone higher density areas near transit stations to an FAR greater than 12, prioritizing the lowest producing community districts in Manhattan, where access to transit, greenspace, and jobs is among the best in the world yet 50% of the residential lots have less than 10 units and 15% have just one.
Abolish parking mandates for all uses in the entire Transit Zone.
Build Homes New Yorkers Can Afford to Buy
As small-scale, mid-density housing construction has virtually disappeared from New York City over the past twenty years, homeownership options have narrowed to a choice between high-rise condos and single-family houses, neither of which are within reach for most low- and middle-income New Yorkers. At the same time, many neighborhoods are actually losing rental units as multi-family rowhouses and brownstones are converted into single-family homes to meet rising demand for these scarce, mid-density housing types.
A major driver of these consolidations is that very few areas in the city allow for new rowhouses, so buyers are limited to the ones that were built over a century ago. Restoring the ability to build medium-density housing types and small condominium projects is essential for creating affordable homeownership opportunities for New Yorkers who are not backed by generational wealth.
Eliminate all R1-R3 zones, which mandate as much as 5,000 square feet of land per home, and set R4B (i.e. “Brownstone zoning”) as the minimum residential zoning standard.
Increase the permissible floor plate for single-stair buildings in order to reduce construction costs for modestly-sized housing developments, and create a commission to study the potential for reforming other building code requirements, as well as regulations and fees that hinder condo construction.
Create a fifth option in the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) program that focuses on affordable homeownership. This option would pair with the State’s new tax incentive, 485-x Option D, to encourage affordable homeownership projects, particularly in the lowest-density areas of the city.
Modernize Schools and Build Homes for Families at the Same Time
The NYC Department of Education (DOE) has enormous capital needs to repair derelict school buildings, along with the need to equip schools with green energy and climate resiliency infrastructure in order to meet the City’s sustainability goals. As one of the largest landowners in the city – and particularly in high-cost neighborhoods with the most dire housing shortages – DOE is also in a unique position to leverage private housing development to modernize schools with green infrastructure, optimize school capacity, and build new childcare facilities for Mayor-elect Mamdani’s much-needed universal childcare program, all under one roof.
Direct the School Construction Authority to inventory which buildings would be the best candidates for a mixed-use development model based on need and suitability, and incorporate the inventory into the DOE Capital Plan.
Leverage the City’s enormous pension funds to create a new program specifically to finance the redevelopment of DOE properties with union labor.
Set Ambitious Boroughwide Housing Goals to Ensure Every New Yorker Has a Fair Chance at a Home
The recently passed Charter amendments provide new powers to the five Borough Presidents through the creation of an Affordable Housing Appeals Board. Each BP can take part in the review of an affordable housing application in their borough after the normal ULURP review if the City Council decided to reject or shrink the project.
In order to give direction to property owners regarding where affordable housing development will be considered most crucial, each BP should analyze the parts of their boroughs that have built the least affordable housing, as well as which areas could support the most housing growth.
Develop Borough-based housing plans with ambitious growth targets, taking into consideration where the City is planning to invest in new infrastructure and where more investment is needed in order to support more housing. These plans will expand upon the Community District targets that the City in October 2026, and should be based on extensive community input and feedback.
