Right to Housing

1. 13.

   https://21visions.urbandesignforum.org/right-to-housing#13Share

   Center health outcomes and housing quality in a new housing plan.

   • Challenge: Nearly one-quarter of public housing residents have faced severe public health challenges from poor living conditions, ranging from asthma to chronic fatigue.

   • Tie a holistic housing strategy directly to social determinants of health.

     Read 3 Ideas

     • Mobilize leadership at the Department of Housing and Preservation, Housing Development Corporation, Department of Homeless Services, NYC Health + Hospitals, and Department of Health & Mental Hygiene to define a healthy housing first model.

     • Building on previous partnerships with NYC Health + Hospitals, enable and encourage city agencies to redevelop city-owned vacant or soft sites with nonprofit developers, supportive housing providers and M/WBE developers committed to healthy housing.

     • Massively expand enforcement for Warranty of Habitability in order to ensure dignified and healthy housing.

   • Fight to restore public housing to livable conditions.

     Read 4 Ideas

     • Expand the City’s allocation to the NYCHA capital budget in order to maintain safe and healthy housing for all residents after years of disrepair.

     • Channel capital budget investments into existing public housing buildings to climate-proof against extreme heat and improve energy efficiency, while serving as a local job creation initiative. (See Working Neighborhoods for more details.)

     • Involve residents in decision-making processes to enable quick and effective management around issues like maintenance at a lower cost to NYCHA.

     • Use creative zoning tools to create new revenue streams to finance public housing improvements, such as the sale of air rights and value capture through impact fees in neighborhood upzonings. (See Good Growth for more details).

2. 14.

   https://21visions.urbandesignforum.org/right-to-housing#14Share

   Embrace creative housing approaches to alleviate homelessness.

   • Challenges: The number of New Yorkers sleeping each night in municipal shelters has risen by roughly 50% in the past 10 years.

   • Make a plan to prevent post-pandemic housing speculation that would exacerbate homelessness.

     Read 4 Ideas

     • Create a city-controlled land bank of both city-owned vacant lots and recently acquired distressed properties as a result of the pandemic.

     • Target publicly-owned land to mission-driven housing developers and community-ownership models.

     • Enable nonprofit affordable housing developers and community land trusts an opportunity to purchase eligible properties before sales to the private market.

     • Explore NYU Democracy Lab’s proposal and consider calling on the federal government for the creation of a new Social Housing Development Authority that would acquire distressed properties and construct city-funded social housing.

   • Retool the zoning code to unleash new housing development serving very low-income and homeless New Yorkers.

     Read 5 Ideas

     • Incentivize supportive housing development by changing the zoning text to achieve the same as-of-right density as other types of community facilities like affordable and senior housing developments on privately-owned sites without the use of a special permit.

     • Appoint a mayoral commission to explore a new simplified and modernized edition of citywide zoning to increase density, tackle climate, and creatively mix uses.

     • Drawing on Minneapolis’ end of single-family-only zoning, explore legalizing duplexes, triplexes, and quadruplexes citywide.

     • Invest in the Basement Pilot Program and advance the legalization of basement apartments so that they meet building and fire code requirements and are recognized as valuable housing assets.

     • Eliminate minimum parking requirements so that new private projects can house more affordable units rather than required off-street parking.

   Case Study

   Minneapolis, MN – Minneapolis 2040

3. 15.

   https://21visions.urbandesignforum.org/right-to-housing#15Share

   Build racially and economically diverse neighborhoods while reducing displacement.

   • Challenge: Since 2014, one-fifth of all new rent-reduced apartments targeting low-income tenants have been concentrated in the high-poverty neighborhoods like the South Bronx and East New York. While in high-opportunity neighborhoods, like the Upper East Side or SoHo, the loss of housing units significantly outweighed new production.

   • Ensure that the responsibility of housing growth is distributed across every neighborhood.

     Read 4 Ideas

     • Target future rezonings to increase affordable housing supply in high-opportunity neighborhoods to attract a mix of income and racial diversity, while reducing pressure on the affordable housing lottery.

     • Cap the percentage of historically preserved land parcels in each community district in order to limit a spike in housing prices and racial homogenization often correlated with historic districts.

     • Increase the CityFHEPS rental assistance voucher limit for individuals and families leaving homelessness so they can be used for quality housing in resource-rich communities.

     • Use the city’s convening power to gather state legislators, regional organizations and officials across the tri-state to combat exclusionary zoning and accelerate housing production on the city’s periphery.

   • Secure permanent housing for Black and brown residents by fighting displacement and investing in historically redlined neighborhoods.

     Read 6 Ideas

     • Appoint a Chief Equity Officer to promote awareness of past racist planning policies throughout all city agencies, fight for fair housing, and launch a commission to explore reparations.

     • Fight to increase Black homeownership by convening the city’s leading financial institutions and Black-owned lenders to generate more purchasing opportunities through credit support.

     • Expand Right to Counsel to reach more renters and cover all housing court proceedings.

     • Drawing on Portland’s North/Northeast Preference Policy, prioritize affordable housing for city residents whose ancestors or guardians have a former or current address in the specific neighborhood. This will target affordable housing preference to residents at risk of displacement rather than new residents in gentrifying neighborhoods.

     • Drawing on Chicago’s INVEST South/West initiative, tie equitable economic development and housing for community revitalization by marshalling public resources into historically disinvested commercial corridors in Black and brown neighborhoods.

       Case Study:

       Chicago, IL – INVEST South/West

     • Develop meaningful relationships with community-based organizations in underinvested communities to expand marketing for new affordable housing.

   Case Study

   Portland, OR – North/Northeast Preference Policy

Advisors

These recommendations are authored by Urban Design Forum. We thank our advisors who provided helpful insights, suggestions, and guidance throughout the working group process.