If there’s one thing Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council can agree on, it is that something has to be done about the lack of housing in the city, even if their methods tend to differ.
Last week, Mayor Adams signed Speaker Adrienne Adams’s Fair Housing Framework legislation into law.
Speaker Adams has been pushing for the city to create a fair housing framework that targets housing production at the community district level since her State of the City address back in March. Her goal is to equitably combat the “dire” housing crisis that disproportionately burdens low-income working families and the city’s Black population.
“My Fair Housing Framework legislation will help create a plan that is a foundation for building and preserving housing, prioritizing affordability, and improving access to neighborhood investments and resources. By setting the expectation that every community must help address the housing crisis, the law will establish an important tool of transparency and accountability for solving our housing crisis,” said Speaker Adams in a statement.
The law requires the city to produce an assessment of long-term citywide housing needs, provide five-year housing production targets for each local community district, and deliver a report on the obstacles and strategies to achieve them as well. The plan would focus on the production and preservation of affordable housing, anti-displacement resources, and neighborhood investments for under-served communities.
“For far too long, the government has let restrictive laws and zoning rules keep us from building the housing New Yorkers need,” said Mayor Adams. “I am proud to stand side-by-side with Speaker Adams to fight the factors that have contributed to housing discrimination and inequality. Together with our ‘City of Yes’ plan, the Fair Housing Framework will help right some of the great wrongs of our city’s history. I look forward to our continued partnership with Speaker Adams and the City Council to fight the city’s untenable housing and affordability crisis.”
The framework matches up with the mayor’s “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” proposal to build “a little more housing in every neighborhood” with reforms to the city’s zoning code.
The shared burden of a housing approach across community districts seems to be fairly well received.
“Thank you to Speaker Adams, the City Council, and the Adams administration for signing into law the Fair Housing Framework. Implementing targets for more equitable development is an important first step toward meeting our housing needs in every neighborhood in New York City,” said Annemarie Gray, Open New York executive director, in a statement. “Making good on these values means doing even more next year. We look forward to working together on the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative and the state legislative session to make sure every level of government is using its full powers to ensure all communities are part of the solution to making New York fair and affordable for all.” Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member who writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.