Voters blessed a building boom for affordable housing in New York. Is it a model for the country?

New York City voters overwhelmingly approved three ballot measures aimed at accelerating the construction of affordable housing by streamlining zoning and land-use regulations. This move is intended to combat an extreme housing crisis characterized by a 1.4% vacancy rate and soaring property costs, with 50% of residents being cost-burdened by housing expenses. The new system allows for bypassing local community review and zoning boards, establishing an appeals process for rejected projects, and aims to simplify the construction of new housing, particularly affordable units, by removing the political obstacles that have historically hindered development. The current system in New York City allowed individual city council members significant power over land-use decisions, often leading to the blockage of housing projects due to local opposition and high political stakes. This "member deference" practice, where the entire council defers to a local member's decision, has been "weaponized" by small groups to prevent affordable housing development. The approved measures seek to decentralize this power and create a more citywide approach to addressing the housing shortage, which has resulted in insufficient new housing being built to meet demand, estimated to be between half a million and a million units. These initiatives are not designed to create large-scale public housing projects as seen in the past. Instead, they will facilitate the development of housing by for-profit and nonprofit developers, with some projects being taxpayer-financed. The resulting housing will be permanently subsidized and owned/operated by nonprofit entities, not the city itself, and will generally consist of individual buildings and projects. The severe housing shortage is evidenced b... download the app to read more