Mayor Adams calls for new tax breaks, dormitory housing in NYC to ease affordability crisis (2024)

Mayor Eric Adams wants to build a half million homes over the next decade, but that will be impossible without new tax incentives meant to spur housing development—and maybe even changes to current building codes to allow for single-room occupancy units, he said Monday.

With budget negotiations underway in Albany, Adams said state lawmakers risk compounding the housing crisis if they fail to take up a tax break similar to the expired, and controversial, 421a program, which waives most property taxes in exchange for some income-restricted housing .

“There is a complete drying up of the pipeline,” he said. “We can’t be so idealistic that we’re not realistic.”

Adams spoke with WNYC-Gothamist editor Josefa Velásquez about his “moonshot” housing plan during an event at the Greene Space —New York Public Radio’s live events venue — describing his approach to an issue that affects everyone in the city and that New Yorkers have shown they care deeply about.

In a citywide survey of 62,000 New Yorkers, a quarter of respondents listed building and preserving affordable housing as their top concern. Respondents also named affordable housing as the most effective intervention for improving public safety.

Adams said a new 421a is essential to meet that need. But progressive elected officials counter that the program has diverted revenue from the city and does not create homes that are actually priced for poor New Yorkers. And many housing activists say the mayor and governor’s housing plans rely on the notion of “trickle down” affordability without deep targets for the low-income New Yorkers most in need of places to live.

Adams dismissed the criticism of 421a and called it “crucial” for the future of the city.

He said locations in South Jamaica and the Rockaways are ripe for new housing development, and called for a more centralized strategy for targeting tax breaks.

“Being smart about where you want to do the incentives would allow us to get housing in the pipeline,” he said.

He also said some city laws need to be amended to allow for different types of housing, like single-room occupancy and dormitory-style units, especially when it comes to turning offices into apartments. New SRO construction has been illegal since the 1950s, and building codes mandate strict light and air requirements.

“Why can't we do a real examination of the rules that state every bedroom must have a window?" Adams said. “You know when you sleep it should be dark. Instead of doing that, have studio apartments with shared living and working spaces.”

Millions of residents across the five boroughs are feeling the impact of the current housing crisis, with median rents and the city’s shelter population both reaching record highs.

Affordable apartments are harder to find than ever: According to the city’s most recent housing survey, less than 1% of apartments priced below $1,500 were vacant and available for rent—an “extreme vacancy shortage.” The report found that from 2017 and 2021, the city lost about 96,000 units renting for less than $1,500 a month, while adding about 107,000 units renting for $2,300 or more.

Most New Yorkers now pay at least 30% of their income on rent, a situation that makes them “rent-burdened,” according to federal housing officials. And home ownership remains little more than a pipe dream for the vast majority of city residents.

But affordable housing development has slowed, fueling Adams’ and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s pledges to streamline new building projects, along with office and hotel conversions. The outlook is uncertain, as state lawmakers resist key measures of Hochul’s housing plan central to Adams’ own goals, including changes to local zoning rules that currently limit development.

At the same time, New York City’s public housing system is at a crossroads, with tenants at some buildings entering into controversial private management arrangements and others poised to vote on the direction and funding source for their homes.

At two campuses in Chelsea, tenants may soon vote on whether developers can tear down their buildings and put up new ones. Adams said Monday he backs the proposal.

“NYCHA housing is obviously aging rapidly so what can the city do to make sure that some of the fixes that need to occur actually happen considering the state of NYCHA,” he said, adding that the plan would lead to “zero displacement.”

Adams began the conversation by taking specific aim at “Not in my backyard” attitudes and called on elected officials to identify specific locations suitable for new housing development in their communities. He singled out Manhattan as the most important borough to develop due its resources and amenities.

“We have to build more, we have to find pathways to build more low-income, middle-income and market rate,” he said. “If we want to integrate a segregated city, we need to start building in those communities that have access to these good qualities that we see throughout the city.”

At a panel following Adams’ comments, other leaders pushed back against Adams’ diagnoses of the housing crisis.

City Planning Commissioner Leah Goodridge, a housing attorney, said some of the opposition to new development in low- and middle-income communities has been miscast as “NIMBYism.”

“Sure, there's some people who are saying that, but a lot of people are saying no to luxury housing that costs $5,000 for a studio,” Goodridge said. “This isn't really about ‘I don't want housing in my backyard.’ This is about, ‘I’ve lived here all of my life. I can't afford to buy a home. I can barely afford to rent. You need to put more affordable housing units in there.’”

And City Comptroller Brad Lander slammed the arguments for 421a, calling it an “outer-borough program” that subsidized housing for New Yorkers making well above the area median income — not low-income residents .

“We've got to build a set of systems that are going to produce units at incomes can people can genuinely afford,” Lander said.

You can stream the full conversation with Adams on the Greene Space’s YouTube channel.