Gov. Hochul at a housing event (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)

New York faces an acute housing crisis: rents are sky high, not enough housing is being built, homeownership is increasingly out of reach, and there is a looming eviction crisis coming out of the covid pandemic. But while the issues contributing to the problem have long been simmering, solutions from state and city leaders have been halting and piecemeal, far from meeting the need wherein 53% of New York City tenants are...

Housing construction (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

If you listen to progressives in New York City talk, you'd think they're focused on addressing our worsening housing crisis. Endless rally cries for tenant protection and increasing affordability make up the bulk of their campaign promises and slogans.

And they would be right to — everyone, from democratic socialists to President Biden agree housing production is a problem. Over half a million units are needed by 2030, according to a...

Housing (photo: Edwin J. Torres/NYC Mayoral Photography Office)

If you haven't learned how hard it is to find housing in New York these days, I envy you. Whether it’s a one bedroom apartment or a house with room for three kids and a dog, everyone can feel the strain of jacked-up prices and limited options. The difference is, if you’re living in a place upstate like I am in Rochester, the supply is even more limited. And that’s before you factor in that I’ve been living with HIV for more than 20 years.

It’s easy to see

A push for senior affordable housing (photo: John McCarten/City Council)

Older New Yorkers, aged 65 and above, are the fastest growing age group in the city, currently numbering at about 1.24 million and expected to grow to as many as 1.4 million residents by 2040. They are also a population that experiences significant housing insecurity and other housing challenges, with more than half considered rent-burdened. As the city continues to grapple with a deepening affordable housing crisis, City Council members on Monday sought answers from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration about efforts to support and prioritize

Affordable housing (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Rent increases begin for roughly one million rent-stabilized New York City apartments on October 1, the highest increases since 2013.

Fallout from the pandemic has strained landlords, especially owners of smaller multi-family rental buildings, and it has also dramatically impacted families who were already struggling to pay even below-market-rate rents.

At the “...

A ground-breaking (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

New York City has an acute housing shortage, with emergency-level lows in apartment vacancies, especially for units affordable to most New Yorkers, and astronomical rents, a homelessness crisis, and halting recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the core of the city’s housing supply deficit is a lengthy and cumbersome land use decision-making process, a bureaucratic maze of local and state regulations combined with political dynamics that have often

Housing on the way (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

September 23, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Getting New York Out of Its Housing Crisis

Moses Gates, Vice President for Housing and Neighborhood Planning at the Regional Plan Association, joined the show to discuss New York City's housing crisis, what policies are key to addressing it, the unique political moment we're in, and how to find more consensus on this contentious issue.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter ...

Housing (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

It’s time for New York to depoliticize housing.

Population growth across the five boroughs has so badly outpaced housing production over the last decade thatthe city needs more than half a million new units by 2030...

City Council Member Tiffany Cabán, left, unveils her housing agenda (photo: @CabanD22)

*This article is published in partnership withNew York Focus*

New York City Council Member Tiffany Cabán on Tuesday announced her support for a proposed rezoning that will allow a three-tower, 1300-unit housing development in Astoria known as Halletts North, in a shift from how other progressive lawmakers have

Closed storefronts (photo: Office of Manhattan Borough President)

Occupied storefronts in New York City make neighborhoods lively, convenient, and livable. But there is a big difference between thriving retail and retail vacancy. When metal grilles and empty spaces dominate, ground-floor retail becomes a community and citywide liability. Vacant stores are ugly, make people feel less safe, attract graffiti, and fail to offer needed neighborhood services. 

Even before the pandemic, many neighborhoods were blighted by

Rendering of the Sunnyside Yard Master Plan

In March 2020, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration and Amtrak released the Sunnyside Yard Master Plan, an ambitious $14 billion infrastructure project that would deck the 180-acre rail yard in Queens and effectively create a new community with thousands of affordable homes and dozens of acres of green and public space situated atop a new regional rail hub.

But the plan was released at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, just before the city and state went into lockdown, economic activity slowed to a crawl, and every city infrastructure project was put on

Mayor Adams talks housing (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

In the spring, the Adams administration announced “City of Yes,” a package of citywide zoning text amendments that ostensibly aim to advance affordable housing, jobs, and sustainability. ANHD applauds the recognition that a citywide

New housing (photo: @NYCHousing)

The housing market in New York City is more unaffordable than ever. How we got here may be complicated, including decades of zoning barriers to building affordable housing and insufficient overall production, but the way out is simple: every neighborhood must do its part to add to our affordable housing supply, without exception or delay. Rejecting the outdated attitude of “no” is the only

A rendering of The Lirio

The ongoing affordable housing crisis in New York City requires bold solutions. We must house more people, especially in vulnerable populations. In Hell’s Kitchen we have an opportunity to do just that with The Lirio, a newly proposed 112-unit affordable housing development, which will include affordable homes for long-term survivors of HIV/AIDS.

New York City has been in an immense housing crisis for decades. Although our population and job demand have grown, we haven’t built enough housing to keep up. Now we

Public Advocate Williams and Committee members on Friday (photo: @nycpa)

A coalition led by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has released a four-year roadmap to “ending homelessness as we know it,” proposing several strategies to help the roughly 55,000 unhoused people in the city move into stable, affordable housing.

Williams, a Democrat, released the new report alongside housing experts and individuals impacted by homelessness outside his Manhattan offices on Friday. He said that mayoral administrations have often focused on moving homeless people from the streets and subways into

Housing to be built (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

New York’s housing crisis is at a fever pitch – and there is new data to prove it. In a newreport, the national pro-housing group Up For Growth found that New York State’s housing shortage worsened dramatically during the 2010s.

The Empire State was

NYCHA CEO Outlines Next Steps for Recently-Passed Preservation Trust

NYCHA Eastchester Garden Houses, The Bronx (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

Update: Governor Hochul signed legislation to expand public housing access to formerly incarcerated individuals on December 23, 2022.

A bill that lawmakers say could ensure more people leaving incarceration have access to public housing passed the State Legislature earlier this year and is awaiting the governor's signature. But housing and criminal justice advocates say the legislation, while "well-intentioned," may contain a

Belmont and beyond, on Long Island (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)

To housing advocates, the solution to the New York City region’s affordability crisis is frustratingly simple enough: build, build, build, and build some more. To them, the suburbs and the single-family homeowners therein serve as selfishly guarded relics from an era long ago that aren’t doing their fair share.

But painting the long vexing issue of housing affordability with such a supply-side broad brush ignores a fundamental tenet of sound

Pride (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

This June in New York City unfolded with a welcome, if not obviously connected, set of events: Pride Month, and the newHousing Blueprint from the administration of Mayor Eric Adams. As two transgender advocates who worked together last year on an...

The Marcus Garvey Extension Project (photo: The Osborne Association)

A new supportive housing development with 52 units designated for recently incarcerated individuals is now open in Brownsville, Brooklyn. This past week, the Osborne Association, a nonprofit focused on helping justice-involved people, celebrated the opening of their first housing initiative of its kind, part of their broader $179 million Marcus Garvey Extension Project.

The effort to provide stable, permanent housing for those who have recently been incarcerated

New York City (photo: Governor's Office)

New Yorkers are voting this month in the Democratic and Republican primaries for Governor as the state grapples with an affordable housing crisis that has hit downstate regions home to some two-thirds of its population the hardest. The issue has been far more elevated among the three Democratic candidates to lead the state for the next four years, with the four Republican candidates largely ignoring the topic. That trend changed somewhat when Gotham Gazette asked the Republican campaigns about the issue.

Candidates on both sides of the aisle do

Housing in the Bronx (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Update: On Tuesday evening, the Rent Guidelines Board voted 5-4 to approve rent increases of 3.25% on one-year leases and 5% on two-year leases for the roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments in New York City.

Many elected officials quickly condemned the decision, calling the increases too high, though they are lower than what the board's independent analysis showed building owners need to cover rising costs. Still, many

Mayor Adams building housing (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

Five-and-a-half months into his administration, Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday released a comprehensive plan for housing and homelessness that aims to build new mixed-income rental housing, preserve existing affordable units, improve public housing stock, expedite the creation of supportive housing, cut red tape that prevents homeless people from accessing housing, and help New Yorkers buy affordable homes. 

The mayor’s plan, dubbed “Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness,” reflects a paradigm shift from

Housing New York City (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

June 14, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: What Building Owners Want from the Rent Guidelines Board and Policy-Makers

Jay Martin, executive director of CHIP, The Community Housing Improvement Program, which represents 4,000 owners and managers of over 400,000 rent-stabilized rental properties in New York City, joined the show to discuss what his members want to see from the NYC Rent Guidelines Board and policy-makers at the city and state levels.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what