Lander Releases Most In-Depth Housing Platform, Will Declare State-of-Emergency on NYC’s Housing Crisis
Lander’s plan will build 500,000 new homes – including new neighborhoods on 4 of the City’s 12 municipal golf courses – strengthen tenant protections, and resurrect the possibility of homeownership for NYC’s working families
Lander’s long history as an affordable housing leader informs his vision for how to solve the housing crisis, fix the City’s housing agencies, and bring real relief to New Yorkers
Watch the recorded press conference
NEW YORK, NY — With skyrocketing rents pushing families out of their homes and the majority of New Yorkers rent burdened, Brad Lander today issued the most in-depth plan to tackle the city’s housing crisis — starting by declaring a state-of-emergency to expedite the building of new units and keep families in their homes. Flexing decades of leadership and expertise in affordable housing and community development, Lander is the most qualified candidate in the race to address the city’s housing emergency.
“The housing crisis facing New Yorkers is an emergency – and we need to act like it,” said Brad Lander. “New Yorkers spend over half their hard-earned salaries on rent; hold their breath every time their rent is up for renewal; and believe that homeownership is a relic of the past. I’ve spent my whole career fighting for affordable housing – and actually delivering on it – so I know what we need to do to build deeply affordable housing, keep New Yorkers in their homes, and resurrect the dream of homeownership for working families.”
Lander’s plan will build 500,000 more homes over the next ten years – including new neighborhoods on 4 of the city’s 12 municipal golf courses – to increase housing supply and create homes families can afford. He will convene a citizens assembly on affordability to establish a shared vision for growth, driven by New Yorkers, and enable the City to streamline the land-use review process for projects that advance that vision.
Lander’s “State of Emergency” plan will also do more to protect tenants and reduce evictions, to address the fear and pressure of displacement from skyrocketing rents; rebuild a meaningful pathway to homeownership for working class New Yorkers, so that everyone can see a future for their families in our city; and fix the City’s housing agencies, so they can actually deliver on these goals.
Lander’s three decades of experience leading on housing make him ready to implement a bold housing vision on Day One. Lander began his career as Executive Director of the Fifth Avenue Committee and then the Pratt Center for Community Development, where he developed and preserved thousands of affordable homes for low-income families, helped strengthen the rent stabilization laws, and emerged as a leading housing advocate and policy-maker.
As a City Council Member, Lander led one of the largest affordable housing efforts in New York City’s recent history with the Gowanus project, one of the largest affordable housing efforts in New York City’s recent history, over 8,500 new housing units to the Brooklyn neighborhood (3,000 of them affordable to low-income and working-class families), along with new infrastructure, environmental investments and open space, affordable artist studios, and renovation to nearby public housing.
As Comptroller, Lander has financed the creation and preservation of tens of thousands of affordable housing units, including preserving 35,000 rent-stabilized housing units impacted by the sudden collapse of Signature Bank last spring, and issuing the City’s first-ever social bonds dedicated to affordable housing, which have created 7,000 affordable homes dedicated to low-income tenants and seniors. Under Lander’s leadership, one of NYC’s pension funds has also established the first-ever “responsible property management standards” for investor-owned housing, setting a new national standard.
I. Build More Units, With a Focus on Affordable Ones
Lander will take bold action to ensure that we BUILD 500,000 new units of housing in the next ten years, across all income levels, with a laser focus on maximizing units affordable to low-income and working-class New Yorkers, by building a broad coalition for inclusive growth, breaking down impediments, identifying new opportunities and planning for great neighborhoods, just like he did as a Council Member in Gowanus. As Mayor, Lander will:
Declare a temporary emergency for housing to expedite growth by streamlining and expediting ULURP and convening a new Citizens Assembly on affordability to build a shared, community-driven vision for adding 500,000 new units of housing over ten years to lay the groundwork for long-term comprehensive planning. Rezoning actions that are in compliance with these plans for housing growth would go through a new, streamlined 90-day public review process.
Increase housing density on key sites ripe for development – including 4 of the City’s 12 municipal golf courses and other city- and state-owned land.
Make it easier to build the housing New Yorkers need by enabling co-living and co-housing models, simplifying zoning through form-based zoning, expanding safe basements and accessory dwelling units, launching Home Share NYC, reviving the original City of Yes proposal, and investing City capital to develop new affordable housing through NYCHA and the NYCHA Preservation Trust.
Advance specific opportunities for neighborhood and transit-oriented growth and rezonings in Long Island City, and along the proposed Interborough Express in Brooklyn and Queens.
Develop long-term comprehensive and regional plans by working with communities and City Council to develop a long-term, citywide, comprehensive plan within two years of declaring the emergency to supplant the emergency process and create a permanent framework for streamlining land use actions and ensuring communities get their fair share of infrastructure investments.
II. Protect Renters
Lander will PROTECT tenants from displacement and skyrocketing rents, and prevent eviction and homelessness. As Mayor, Brad will:
Protect tenants and prevent evictions by defending rent regulation, fully funding the Right to Counsel program, launching a public education campaign and enforcing Good Cause Eviction, combatting discrimination in the rental housing market, launching a new renter transparency tools, and reforming code enforcement to ensure tenants get the repairs they need, when they need them.
Reduce homelessness by improving the efficacy of CityFHEPs vouchers and the City’s housing lottery system and creating a new rental assistance program.
Provide financial incentives to landlords to improve housing quality, including funding a technical assistance program for the new J-51 tax abatement, ensuring there are private and public financial products to fund energy retrofits, growing community solar programs, and broadening partnerships with private lenders to expand the capacity of HPD.
Escalate code enforcement against irresponsible landlords and use City capital to purchase distressed buildings, partnering with community organizations to rehab them while protecting tenants in place, and ensuring long term affordability through nonprofit or collective tenant ownership.
III. OWN: Pathways for homeownership for working-class New Yorkers
Lander will rebuild the pathway for working class New Yorkers to OWN their own homes in New York City and ensure that the dream of homeownership is possible for the next generation of New Yorkers. As Mayor, Lander will:
Advance and promote upzonings for the development of large-scale, affordable co-ops to dramatically increase the number of affordable homes available for purchase in New York City, restoring the path to affordable homeownership once offered by the Mitchell-Lama program.
Launch Homes for City Workers to cut the price of purchasing a home in half for City-employed workers – including teachers, police officers, and firefighters, and other civil servants.
Prohibit discrimination in the co-op housing market to ensure all New Yorkers get a fair shot at purchasing a home.
Provide expanded financial support and technical assistance to HDFC, Mitchell-Lama, and other naturally occurring affordable co-ops to preserve this treasured resource of permanently-affordable homeownership that has been stewarded by housing heroes across decades, but faces serious challenges.
Reform the broken and unfair NYC property tax system to reduce costs for working class homeowners and provide a fairer, more rational system for the future.
IV. Fix NYC’s Housing Agencies
Lander will fix our housing agencies to ensure those charged with tackling the City’s housing crises are equipped to enact his bold housing agenda. As Mayor, Lander will:
Rehabilitate thousands of units of public housing every year while ensuring that NYCHA residents always have an informed vote on their future.
Improve resident experience by developing new tools, such as a real time vendor scorecard (“Yelp” for NYCHA) that holds contractors accountable to provide NYCHA residents with the repairs they need.
Reform HPD and invest in technology, staffing, and training upgrades so that skilled, imaginative public servants are sufficiently resourced to protect tenants and dramatically scale up the City’s affordable housing stock in line with this plan, and both supported and held accountable for doing so.
Make CityFHEPS vouchers easier for individuals and families to use when exiting shelter and ensure adequate staffing at the Department of Social Services (DSS).
Dramatically increase capital funding for HPD and NYCHA.
Lander’s “State of Emergency” plan builds on the first commitment he made in the race for mayor: to end street homelessness for people with serious mental illness through better agency coordination, expanded treatment, secure detention, increased mental health system capacity, and a “housing first” approach that connects people living on the street directly to housing with services and enables them to stay stably housed.
Read State of Emergency - Addressing NYC’s Housing Crisis.
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