People & Neighborhoods

Housing Plan for LGBTQ+ Communities

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Intro

LGBTQ+ communities need sufficient affordable housing to create safety – ideally, safety in numbers – in particular neighborhoods.

NYC’s housing plan can help secure the city’s future as a haven for LGBTQ+ communities by leveraging housing policy to eliminate structural barriers to housing access, preserve housing affordability, ensure safety in communities, and better understand housing needs.

LGBTQ+ Communities & Housing in New York City

There is a story about LGBTQ+ communities and housing in New York City. The story is that LGBTQ+ people – typically gay, White, cisgender men – moved into low-income neighborhoods, rehabilitated the housing stock, and drove gentrification. This is misleading, and speaks to the importance and complexity of rethinking housing affordability as it pertains to LGBTQ+ people. Though of course there are wealthy LGBTQ+ people living in New York, the city owes its primacy as a world destination for LGBTQ+ activism, culture, and history largely to low-income communities.

In addition to the well-known neighborhood enclaves in Chelsea and the West Village, there are thriving LGBTQ+ communities all over New York City’s five boroughs. It is not that these neighborhoods are wholly affordable, or even entirely safe, for LGBTQ+ people. Rather, these neighborhoods have allowed LGBTQ+ people to find some affordable housing and build community with one another in a concentrated geographic location.

The publication

A NEW LENS FOR NYC HOUSING PLAN: HOUSING PLAN FOR LGBTQ+ COMMUNITIES

In spite of the important efforts of both the City and its community partners, as the data shows, LGBTQ+ communities face housing instability resulting from a wide range of forces. For LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, increased vulnerability to homelessness is coupled with the fear of experiencing violence in homeless shelters.

In this new publication, CHPC explores how a housing plan for LGBTQ+ communities could help better meet the needs of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers.

Housing Plan for LGBTQ+ Communities is part of A New Lens for NYC’s Housing Plan, CHPC’s research and education initiative to explore how New York City’s next housing plan could have a broader impact beyond counting units. The next housing plan provides an opportunity for communities and policymakers to widen the discussion, articulate new metrics, and develop a shared vision of housing policy for the city.

Related events

A NEW LENS FOR NYC HOUSING PLAN

Housing Plan for LGBTQ+ Communities is part of A New Lens for NYC’s Housing Plan, CHPC’s research and education initiative to explore how New York City’s next housing plan could have a broader impact beyond counting units. The next housing plan provides an opportunity for communities and policymakers to widen the discussion, articulate new metrics, and develop a shared vision of housing policy for the city.

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