With New York Citys population on track to reach 9 million over the next two decades, housing experts are pushing the city to change housing laws to free up apartments.
Despite the de Blasio administrations efforts to address the citys worsening housing crisis, experts told a panel Tuesday there are cheaper and more effective ways to fix the problem, Crains reported. Making basement apartments legal and moving tenants to more appropriately sized places are some of the possible solutions suggested.
Jerilyn Perine, the head of the nonprofit Citizens Housing and Planning Council and the former commissioner of the citys Department of Housing Preservation and Development, told the panel that between 50,000 to 100,000 basement apartments could enter the marketplace if they were made legal. The legalization of these types of places was mentioned in Mayor Bill de Blasios housing plan in 2014, but the idea took a backseat to other policies, according to the website.
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