Our housing supply problem is not just a matter of having too little housing, but also too few types of housing.
New Yorkers are extraordinarily diverse and lead dynamic lives. Their housing needs vary widely and change over time, sometimes suddenly. Households need to be agile. But the housing options available to them are limited and difficult to adapt to their needs.
We can read in the press accounts of celebrities and others with sufficient means modifying their housing to suit their lives – whether turning a multi-unit townhouse into a single-family home, or combining units in a coop or condominium building. But for renters looking for a suitably sized and priced apartment, or for homeowners of modest means, this kind of flexibility is too often beyond reach. They must adjust their lives to fit the housing available to them, rather than the other way around.
As a result, many people are effectively excluded from neighborhoods, left inadequately housed, or not housed at all.
What kinds of housing could better meet the range of needs of NYC households, and what more can we do to empower people make their housing fit their needs?
In our One Size Housing Fits All initiative, CHPC is taking a close look at the actual needs and priorities of New Yorkers who live in neighborhoods throughout the city – including lower density neighborhoods, which often offer a narrower range of housing options. Do residents need a little more space for a growing family? Do they need room for their grandparents to move in? Are their kids grown and looking for a small place of their own? Are they retirees who could support themselves by adding a rental unit?
This research builds on CHPC’s extensive prior research on basement and cellar apartments and different housing typologies, and will provide direction for City and State regulatory reforms and programmatic support for new housing.
