Statement by NYC Comptroller Lander in Support of City of Yes

 

As the New York City Council holds its two-day public meeting on the Department of City Planning’s City of Yes: Zoning for Housing Opportunity citywide zoning reform proposals, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander issued the following statement: 

“I support the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning reform proposal, which is common sense policy that would allow a little more housing to be built in every neighborhood. Increasing the city’s housing supply is essential in combatting our dire housing shortage.  

“The proposals would also help us catch up with cities across the country that are working to end exclusionary zoning and further fair housing goals, correcting for dozens of rezonings over the past 20 years that limited new development in neighborhoods with strong access to public services. In particular, allowing new development in transit-rich neighborhoods will help increase New Yorkers’ economic mobility and access to opportunity. 

“However, as Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso stated in his favorable recommendation on City of Yes, ‘the proposal should be best understood as a housing supply strategy rather than a housing affordability strategy.’  The market alone cannot meet the housing affordability challenge that New York’s working families face every day.  

“We urgently need a renewed commitment and a more comprehensive strategy from the City, State, and Federal governments for creating and sustaining much more deeply affordable housing. In order for New Yorkers to actually see themselves sharing in the prosperity that comes along with growth, we must expand access to housing vouchers and families’ ability to use them, bolster tenant protections, live up to the City’s ‘right to counsel’ promise to protect tenants from evictions, and generate affordable homeownership opportunities for working families. It is also urgent that we strengthen the capacity of our City’s housing agencies, as we have previously called for.   

“I applaud City Planning Commission Chair Dan Garodnick and Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer for putting forward the City of Yes proposals, and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams for her leadership and efforts to ensure that its passage is part of a broader strategy that can more adequately address the housing affordability crisis that New York City faces. The City of New York has the tools to combat the housing crisis, and we must use all of them to create a more affordable, fairer, and thriving city.”