Every New Yorker \u2014 from a renter in Crown Heights to a homeowner in Cambria Heights \u2014 knows that the rent (or mortgage) is too damn high.<\/p>\n
Despite a post-COVID overall population recovery, the unabated, head-spinning rise in housing costs is pushing \u2014 and pricing \u2014 out working New Yorkers, on whose backs our economy has been built for centuries. Since 2000, we\u2019ve lost more than 200,000 Black residents<\/a>, and today,\u00a0families with children<\/a>\u00a0across races are leaving NYC at twice the rate of others. Simply put, our future as the world\u2019s most diverse and dynamic city is in great peril.<\/p>\n The status quo clearly isn\u2019t working. Despite serious efforts in recent years \u2014 including Council Speaker Adrienne Adams\u2019 remarkable leadership in passing the City of Yes zoning reform \u2014 we have an unbelievable 1.4% rental vacancy rate<\/a>\u00a0(the lowest since 1968) and\u00a0half of renters<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0homeowners<\/a> can\u2019t afford where they live.<\/p>\n Our affordability crisis is a house on fire and there\u2019s no fire door in sight.\u00a088% of New Yorkers feel the city is unaffordable<\/a>, and\u00a065% of New Yorkers say the cost of housing is their top concern.<\/a>\u00a0Propelled to the polls by increasingly threadbare wallets, voters just sent a resounding message in June that dousing this blaze must be our Number One priority.<\/p>\n This November, we have a unique and unprecedented opportunity to take matters into our own hands. New Yorkers have the chance to directly vote \u201cyes\u201d on four ballot measures that will finally equip us with the long-overdue and necessary tools to fix our broken housing system.<\/p>\n New York City\u2019s current process for building housing is excessively complicated, slowing down or blocking new housing altogether. In the past decade, housing construction has\u00a0lagged behind major U.S. cities<\/a>.<\/p>\n These days, the average time it takes to get new housing built in NYC is nearly 900 days<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 compared to 220 in Boston or 400 in L.A. New York\u2019s housing production has dropped 75% over the past century<\/a> \u2014 and in some communities,\u00a0not a single project<\/a> has been approved in the past decade.\u00a0In the past 10 years, just 12 Community Board districts built more housing than the other 47 combined<\/a>.<\/p>\n When it takes $4 million and four years to go from idea to shovel in the ground, many projects are never even proposed \u2014 making it impossible to quantify how many tens of thousands of homes our city has truly blocked from construction.<\/p>\n But these impacts haven\u2019t been felt equally: Black and Latino families in New York are\u00a0more than twice as likely<\/a>\u00a0to report poor housing conditions than their white neighbors, and Black and Latino New Yorkers make up\u00a090% of families<\/a>\u00a0in our shelter system. Stark disparities also exist in terms of home ownership, with\u00a042% of white residents owning their homes<\/a>, compared to just 27% of Black residents and just 17% of Latino residents.<\/p>\n As an elected official, it\u2019s my job to be part of the solution \u2014 which is why I\u2019m voting Yes on Proposals 2 through 5.<\/p>\n Proposals 2 and 3 will fast-track the process for affordable developments and for those that are up to four stories high, as well as make it easier to make commonsense climate resiliency improvements, like installing solar panels.<\/p>\n Ballot Proposal 5 will end burdensome and expensive delays \u2014 and bring us into the 21st century \u2014 by enabling us to convert 8,000 paper maps into one digital one.<\/p>\n Finally, Proposal 4 will create a body where elected representatives \u2014 the Council speaker, the relevant borough president, and the mayor \u2014 will be able to consider crucial borough- and citywide housing needs when revisiting housing that\u2019s been blocked.<\/p>\n