Transcript: Mayor Adams Kicks off Public Review of 'City of Yes for Housing Opportunity' Proposal

April 29, 2024

Dan Garodnick, Director, Department of City Planning: All right, good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm Dan Garodnik, the director of the Department of City Planning, welcome.
We are here today to celebrate a very important milestone. Before we get into that, I want to recognize a few of our administration officials who are here with us. I'm going to introduce the mayor in a moment, but we have the deputy mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce, Maria Torres Springer.

The commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing, Preservation and Development, Adolfo Carrión. The executive director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships, Pastor Gil Monrose. The executive director for Housing for New York City, Leila Bozorg. The executive director of the New York Panel, B.J. Jones.

We are so excited to be joined by advocates, our partners in labor, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council reps, 32BJ, thank you, thank you to all of you for being here today. We are here this morning to celebrate the start of public review for one of the most important housing proposals in our lifetimes, City of Yes for Housing Opportunity.

New Yorkers from across the city have come out with us today in support of this plan that would tackle our housing crisis by building a little more housing in every neighborhood. We have support from housing providers and advocates, from builders and unions, from planning and smart growth groups and many more.

As many of you know, New York City has a severe housing crisis with vacancy rates at 1.4 percent, the lowest level since the 1960s. In fact, this housing crisis has been going on for so long that some take it as a fact of life that New York City is a place where rents always go up, where housing is always hard to find, but that is a policy choice. We don't have to live this way. New York City can be a place where there are options for housing in every neighborhood so you can rent or buy, stay in your own community or move closer to your family or to your job. Mayor Adams has charged us to update our housing rules to make this a reality. That is exactly what we are going to do, starting today. Let's give it a big round, City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, and let's hear from the mayor of New York City, Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Good job, good job, Dan, but one thing you missed out on doing, you just don't say 32BJ in HTC. We say 32! Audience:BJ!
Mayor Adams: 32.
Audience:BJ!
Mayor Adams:Who are we?
Audience: HTC!
Mayor Adams: That's the way you introduce those two organizations. Listen, let's be clear, DM Maria Torres-Springer and her entire team in general, but specifically over at HBD, under the Commissioner Carrión, and the entire administration was focused on how we must address the biggest problem we have in this city, and that's the inventory. 1.4 percent vacancy rate, and when you look at affordable units, it's even lower.

We have an inventory issue, folks, and the inventory issue is aligned with far too many people who march on Monday of housing is a right, but Tuesday we say not in our backyard, not on our block, not near my park, not near my transportation. We cannot continue to have a city where housing is pushed in the same communities over and over again. Someone gave me a number the other day, out of the 59 community boards, nine of them have more housing than the other 50, affordable housing than the other 50 combined. Just think about that. That creates an atmosphere of gentrification, of displacement, of overpricing. It really is not fair in the city of New York. Housing is a New York City problem, not just one community or one neighborhood problem.

Locations where you have good schools, good transportation, good access to healthcare, good access to healthy food, they need to share the wealth.
This amazing plan of City of Yes is part of our overall moonshot goal of 500,000 units of housing by the year 2032. We have to start by building a little more in each community. It could be done. This is how you share the opportunity. I agree so much with the philosopher of our time who stated that the rent is too damn high and it's too high because we don't have enough of the inventory and supply and demand. When you get numbers this low, then we're at the mercy of those landlords who can charge what they want, but if we build more, we can get it done. We've already shown that we can get it done. More finance for affordable units in one year in the history of the city. More formerly homeless individuals moving to permanent housing in the history of the city. More individuals who needed vouchers for housing, more use in the history of the program. We keep breaking records over and over and over again in order to do this moonshot goal.
It's time for a liftoff and that liftoff starts today with the City of Yes initiative. So we're saying yes to more housing, yes to addressing the rent burden that 50 percent of New Yorkers are experiencing, yes to make sure our children can grow up in a home and not homelessness so it won't lead to the failure of graduation, which leads to incarceration. We need to build environments and communities where everyone can have an opportunity to enjoy what this city has to offer. The popularity of our brand must turn into prosperity for every New Yorker.
Hats off to this team, DM Maria Torres Springer, you came in with a real mission and her determination to move this forward is where we are now. When you do all these policies, when you do all of these conversations, when you talk about all of these initiatives, all of the hearings, all of the voting, it drills down to one thing, having someone in a home. No one I believe represents that more than what Shams DaBaron has done.
A person who [was] formerly homeless, he knows what it is to sleep on the trains. He knows what it is to sleep on park benches. He knows what it is to struggle, to make sure you can raise your family in a proper place to sleep. He knows what it is, and instead of saying I'm going to abandon the because, he has leaned into the cause more. He's brought formerly homeless people for the first time here to City Hall to engage in this conversation. He has come up with real ideas and recommendations, has committed his life. People who are able to turn pain into purpose can create an environment where others can turn pain into purpose.
It just gives me real joy to bring him to the microphone, a person who I speak with throughout the evening, who has traveled with me to our various homeless shelters, who have rode the trains with me and walk with me and talk with people who are living on the streets. He is clearly focused on this agenda. All we need now is for our community boards, for our City Council members to be a partner with us.
Let's turn this city of no into a City of Yes, so that working class people could be in the city that they made possible. We don't want them moving to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and other places in our region. They deserve to be in the city that they worked in, that they built on, that they made safe, that they can raise their children and families. No one personifies that more than my friend Shams DaBaron. Come on up, Shams.
Shams DaBaron: Good morning. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, segregation is the adultery of an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality. His words remind us that the struggle against segregation is not only a fight for justice, but a moral imperative that we must continue to address in our time. Today, we find ourselves at a critical crossroad in our city's history.
We face a choice that defines not only our landscape, but our values. It's housing or else. This choice is at the heart of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity Proposal, a transformative plan that is designed to ensure every neighborhood contributes to a holistic solution to our housing crisis. This isn't about just homes. It's about justice and equity.
Our current zoning laws, rooted deeply in the past, marred by segregation and discrimination, disproportionately impact Black and brown communities, perpetuating a cycle of poverty and displacement. These laws are not just relics. They are the active barriers that prevent us from moving forward into a fairer future. By endorsing the City of Yes, we commit to dismantling those barriers, offering every New Yorker the dignity of a permanent home rather than the temporary refuge of a shelter. Shelters provide an immediate relief, but not a sustainable solution.
They are often set up swiftly with minimal community input, becoming band-aids over wounds that require deeper healing. The City of Yes proposal promotes the construction of permanent housing, which is not only more cost effective, but also a cornerstone of community stability and individual dignity. Think about this, New York City spends over $100 per person each day to warehouse people in shelters, a costly approach that only provides temporary relief and often worsens living conditions. Investing this money in building more homes will offer a more long-term, sustainable solution.
It's crucial to address that the majority of those affected are Black and brown individuals showing a clear need for systemic change. The financial implications of maintaining shelters are profound. Billions are funneled into this shelter industrial complex, an industry that too often profits from perpetuating poverty rather than resolving it. The rise of poverty pimps. Those who exploit the system for financial gain by rapidly building shelters because it is more profitable than developing low-income or affordable housing, is a travesty. A misallocation of resources that could otherwise transform lives by providing stable long-term housing solutions.
Some call for a right to shelter. I call for a right to housing. If we continue down this path, we risk not just a rise in homelessness, but the displacement of essential workers, many of whom are Black and brown, who form the backbone of our civic workforce. These are our nurses, our teachers, our public servants, who will no longer be able to afford to live in the city they serve.
Now think about this, if we fail to act, the very lots we fight to keep empty in the neighborhoods could effortlessly transform into shelters. This is the stark reality of housing, or else. The or else being an influx of temporary shelters that you might have little power to challenge. Is this the solution we want? Do we choose to build a city where every person, regardless of race or economic status, can find a stable home? The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is not just a call to action, it is a warning.
We must dismantle the barriers erected by outdated racist zoning laws and replace them with policies that promote inclusivity and growth. Every neighborhood must contribute to our city's housing solution. This is our moment to reject the temporary fixes of the past and commit to permanent, sustainable change.
Let us stand together, not just for more housing, but for equitable housing. Let us dismantle the old structures of inequality built into our zoning laws and urban policies. Let's champion the City for Yes for Housing Opportunity as a testament to our commitment to justice and equity. I urge you to contact your local officials and community boards to advocate for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity.
Let's work together to ensure every New Yorker has access to affordable, stable housing. Support this initiative to make our city a place of inclusivity, opportunity, and prosperity for all. This is a rally, right? What do we want?
Audience: Housing!
DaBaron: When do we want it?
Audience: Now!
DaBaron: What do we want?
Audience: Housing!
DaBaron: When do we want it?
Audience: Now!
DaBaron:In the City of what?
Audience: Yes!
DaBaron:In the City of what?
Audience: Yes!
DaBaron: Come on, say it again!
Audience: Yes!
DaBaron: Say it again!
Audience: Yes!
Mayor Adams: All right. Thank you. Listen, listen, love that, love that. But you're a little bit too quiet for me.
Listen, moonshot. You don't get to the moon without a good astronaut and one that has built the rocket correctly. We are really blessed to have Dan. He has a plan, and he has really focused on this, how to do it in an equitable way. This city is blessed to have a former councilperson that understood planning, now is in charge of planning this out for us. Come on. Let's hear this plan. Dan Garodnick, thank you so much.
Garodnick: All right. Thank you, mayor. As you've heard, City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is an essential part of our work to create a more affordable city. This is the most pro-housing initiative in the history of New York City zoning.
We are aiming to create a little more housing in every neighborhood. When every neighborhood contributes, we can make a big impact citywide. We have carefully crafted these proposals to match the character of every neighborhood from low-density areas to the high rises of lower Manhattan. How are we going to do this?
In low-density areas, we will legalize accessory dwelling units for one and two-family homes so they can add an extra unit in their attic or in their backyard. These are proven strategies in cities across the country to help middle-class families. It creates options for seniors who want to stay in their homes, kids who are coming home from college, or retirees who just need a little more cash.
We're going to make it easier for organizations with campuses, like churches, to do infill development. Today, even if they have development rights to build, arcane rules mean that they can't actually use those development rights. We will change that.
Along commercial corridors, we're pursuing what we call town-center zoning. These will create two to four stories of housing above retail on the ground floor, the kind of development that we already see all over the city but has been functionally banned by our own zoning rules.
Near transit, we'll implement transit-oriented development for medium-sized apartment buildings, a finely crafted approach to put housing on wide streets and large lots where it makes the most sense.In higher-density areas, we'll create a universal affordability preference, or UAP. This means a building can be about 20 percent larger as long as that 20 percent is permanently affordable.
We'll also make it easier to convert office buildings to housing. Today, our zoning includes some arbitrary obstacles, like a cutoff in 1961 that prevents newer buildings from converting. We will unlock the potential for hundreds of underused office buildings across the city to become much-needed homes instead.
We will lift parking mandates on all new housing across the city. This isn't a ban on parking. Instead, it's letting builders include parking where it is needed, rather than having a minimum mandate that is in conflict with new homes where parking is simply not necessary.
This is the moment where we can turn the tide on housing in New York City and set ourselves on a path with more housing opportunities and more housing choices for New Yorkers. I couldn't be prouder to stand here with this great group of supporters who agree that we must say "Yes!" to new housing. What are we going to say to new housing?
Audience: Yes!
Garodnick: Are we ready for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity?
Audience: Yes!
Garodnick: We've been at this for some time, but today at 1:00 at the City Planning Commission, we will refer out the text of this proposal to community boards and to borough presidents, and we expect that it will have a vote right here at the New York City Council by the end of the year.
Today, while we have been at this for quite some time, is also in many ways day one of the formal process. I'm going to ask this group here before we close, are you ready for a more affordable New York?
Audience: Yes!
Garodnick: Are you ready to turn the tide on housing in this city?
Audience: Yes!
Garodnick: Are you ready to say yes to City of Yes?
Audience: Yes!
Garodnick: Thank you all so much. Mayor, thank you.
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