City of Yes for Housing Opportunity

Every day, New Yorkers struggle with our housing shortage. High housing costs, long commutes, cramped apartments, and instability are all the result of a lack of options.

New York City is facing a severe housing affordability crisis. In the past 30 years, housing costs have risen faster than wages, while the rate of housing production has fallen. As a result, more than half of New York households are “rent burdened” meaning that over one third of their gross income goes to paying the rent.

Our regulations have prevented equitable and commonsense solutions: outdated, highly restrictive, and overly complicated zoning laws have limited opportunities to create new homes and made those that do get built more expensive.

The housing crisis impacts all New Yorkers; the solutions need to enlist all New Yorkers. City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is a zoning reform proposal that addresses the housing crisis by making it possible to build a little bit more housing in every neighborhood.

The proposal went through public review in the spring & summer of 2024, with community boards and borough presidents providing input and the City Planning Commission (CPC) holding a public hearing. In September, the CPC approved the proposal with modifications. The City Council held a public hearing in October and voted to approve the proposal with modifications on December 5, 2024.

Learn more about the proposal below:

 Context  |  Elements of the Proposal  |  Process and Timeline 

If we create more housing in every neighborhood, we can ensure every New Yorker has the opportunity to stay and thrive in this city.

It is time to undo the barriers holding back housing opportunity and give New Yorkers more housing choices.

City of Yes for Housing Opportunity would unlock housing growth in every neighborhood to build the homes we need. Each aspect of the proposal—from helping offices convert to residential, to giving homeowners the option to add small rental units, to adding more affordable housing in high-demand neighborhoods—is a proven strategy to help lower housing costs and help neighborhoods thrive.

Keep scrolling to learn more about major components of the proposal.

In recent decades, high-demand neighborhoods have lost affordable housing and become increasingly out of reach to working families.

The Universal Affordability Preference is a new tool that would allow buildings to add at least 20% more housing, if the additional homes are affordable to households earning 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI). As a result, it will deliver new affordable housing in high-cost neighborhoods across New York City to working families. 

Today, outdated rules prevent underused offices and other non-residential space from converting to housing. For example, many buildings constructed after 1961, or outside the city's largest office centers, cannot be converted to housing.

City of Yes will make it easier for vacant offices and other non-residential buildings to become homes, a win-win policy to create housing, boost property values, and create more active, vibrant neighborhoods in areas that have been hard-hit by the effects of the pandemic.

Letting older, outdated commercial buildings become residential is a boon to both our businesses and our workers.

City of Yes will breathe new life into our office districts and address our housing crisis.

New York is a city of neighborhoods, and each neighborhood is anchored by commercial corridors with shops and vibrant street life — a little town center for every community.

Modest apartment buildings with stores on the street and apartments above exist in low-density areas across the five boroughs – most of them from the 1920s to 1950s. However, today's zoning prohibits that classic form even in areas where it’s very common.

New York City currently mandates off-street parking along with new housing even where it’s not needed, driving down housing production and driving up rents.

City of Yes would lift these costly parking mandates for new housing, as many cities across the country have successfully done. The proposal will preserve the option to add parking, but no one will be forced to build unnecessary parking.

Across the city, small homeowners face challenges with rising costs and aging in place. Regulations limit what New Yorkers can do with their own property, which means families have to move farther away from their grandparents or grandchildren, or are forced into uncomfortably cramped houses. Meanwhile, spaces like garages go unused when improvements could make them comfortable homes. Accessory dwelling units (backyard cottages, garage conversions) can add new homes and support homeowners without significantly changing the look and feel of a neighborhood.

Adding housing near public transit is a commonsense approach to support convenient lifestyles, limit the need for car ownership, lower congestion, and reduce carbon emissions. Many modest apartment buildings exist in lower-density areas, most of them built between the 1920s and 1950s.

However, current zoning bans apartment buildings like these, forcing New Yorkers into long commutes, increasing traffic congestion and worsening climate change.  

City of Yes would re-legalize modest, transit-oriented apartment buildings in low-density residence districts. Sites must be near transit, over 5,000 square feet, and either on the short end of a block or facing a street 75+ feet wide. Buildings would be 3, 4 or 5 stories, depending on zoning district.

Across the city, many residential, faith-based, or other campuses have underused space that they could turn into housing. That new construction can pay for repairs to existing buildings, breathe new life into community institutions, and help address our housing crisis.

Today, arbitrary rules get in the way.

Visit nyc.gov/YesHousingOpportunity for more information, or email HousingOpportunity@planning.nyc.gov.