New York City is facing a compounded crisis: a major, multi-year budget gap that is already forcing hard choices about services and an affordable housing emergency that is hitting low-income New Yorkers the hardest. These two pressures reinforce each other. When the budget is tight, the city has less flexibility to invest in housing and the supports that keep people stable. And when housing costs rise, more families need public assistance – putting even more strain on the budget. What we need now are tools that do three things at once: generate meaningful, durable revenue; accelerate the production of affordable housing, including deeply affordable units; and avoid cutting the core services New Yorkers rely on every day.
Too often, the public debate treats these challenges as separate problems to be solved sequentially – close the budget gap first and then focus on housing, or build more housing and hope the fiscal picture improves. That framing is wrong. New York does not have the luxury of addressing these crises one at a time. The city needs solutions that work on both fronts simultaneously.
One such solution is hiding in plain sight: the unused development rights above city-owned property…