The city has been pushing development on recalcitrant communities while ignoring policy solutions that could ease the housing crisis without costing a dime, housing experts said Tuesday at a Crain’s Getting Ready for 9 Million conference.
The city is on track to reach 9 million people by 2040, which translates into a need for 350,000 more apartments. While the de Blasio administration has called for new towers around transit nodes, panelists said allowing more basement apartments and moving tenants into appropriately sized units would house many additional New Yorkers.
“We speak about building bigger … and we get angry if communities don’t like it or raise questions, but we don’t speak about creating a path for legalizing basements in small homes,” said Jerilyn Perine, head of the nonprofit Citizens Housing and Planning Council and former commissioner of the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, “[anywhere from] 50,000 to 100,000 that could be put into the marketplace.”
Read more in Crain’s New York Business.