Modernizing Mandates Will Help City of Yes Ease NYC’s Affordability Crisis

New York’s housing crisis has forced an “all hands on deck” moment, which will undoubtedly benefit working families across the five boroughs.

At this pivotal juncture, it’s crucial that we put in place smart, comprehensive policies that recognize the unique challenges of building in a dense urban environment and don’t undermine development with one-size-fits-all mandates. 

For too long, too few neighborhoods have borne the brunt of Gotham’s efforts to build affordable housing. Thankfully, there are multiple efforts underway to address this. The mayor is signing executive orders to convert city property into housing, leaders in Albany are passing housing plans, and the City Council is weighing the ambitious set of zoning reforms known as the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity.

City of Yes has been the subject of a robust — and often contentious — series of community board meetings in advance of a likely City Council vote this fall. The attention is merited. This comprehensive proposal has the potential to galvanize the construction of affordable housing by addressing and modernizing many of the mandates that drive up costs. 

Take, for example, the issue of parking. Since 1961, New York City has required new housing development to include the creation of parking spots — regardless of the demand or need in the surrounding neighborhood.  

It might seem counterintuitive, but building a single parking space in New York is extremely expensive — approximately $67,500 on average, though the cost per space can rise to a staggering $150,000. This is comparable to the $122,500 subsidy for one unit of affordable housing.

In other words, for every parking spot a developer is required to build, we are potentially missing out on an opportunity to provide an individual or family with desperately needed affordable housing.

These requirements handicap additional growth at a time when the demand for housing far outweighs supply. A Regional Plan Association analysis projects the five boroughs will need to build 817,00 more homes over the next decade to keep up with rising demand. Meanwhile, the number of people in New York living on the streets and subways has reached its highest level in nearly two decades. If we continue to allocate resources to fulfill outdated policies like the parking mandate, we will never be able to put an end to the crisis.

The City of Yes proposal would eliminate parking requirements across the five boroughs. To be clear, removing these requirements does not, in any way, restrict the ability of project developers to propose the creation of additional parking spaces. Instead, it only prevents developers from being forced to build unnecessary parking at the expense of the overall project.

This change is about aligning development with the actual transportation needs of residents on a case-by-case basis. For example, a building in Lower Manhattan, which has a wide range of public transportation options, would not have the same parking needs as the same development in Breezy Point, Queens, or on Staten Island.

It doesn’t make sense to continue to devote vital public funding toward increasing parking spaces when those dollars could be better spent on sorely needed housing production. Particularly as New York looks to limit its climate impact — much of which is generated by vehicular traffic, even as EVs are increasingly popular — accommodating more parking is simply counterproductive.

A smarter approach would be to build more affordable housing in neighborhoods with readily accessible public transit options. This will help limit dependence on car ownership, decreasing the need for parking spaces while reducing carbon emissions.

New York City cannot continue to overlook the core driver of the housing crisis in New York: the lack of supply. City of Yes better equips developers with the ability to create housing that maximizes available funding and best suits the surrounding community. We hope the City Council will work to pass this measure, along with the entire package to create more housing across the five boroughs.

Jolie Milstein is the CEO and president of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing.