REMARKS
Overview of the housing crisis in New York City
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96 sec
Council Member Riley outlines the severe housing crisis facing New York City, highlighting its causes and impacts on residents.
- The city has a historically low vacancy rate of 1.4%, meaning 98.6% of available apartments are occupied.
- There is a mismatch between housing supply and demand, with more people wanting to live in the city than available homes.
- Income growth has not kept pace with inflation and rent increases, exacerbating affordability issues.
- The number of apartments available for less than $1,500 is steadily decreasing.
- The administration has proposed a complex set of reforms to address the housing crisis, which has been extensively analyzed by community boards, advocates, and experts.
Kevin Riley
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As I discussed when we held the public hearing last month for this initiative, our communities are facing a very real housing crisis.
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Our constituents are struggling to find an apartment or a house that's both large enough for their families and affordable.
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We know the cause of this crisis.
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New York City has not been building enough housing.
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More people want to live in the city than the number of available homes.
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This has led to the historical low vacancy rate of just 1.4%.
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This means 98.6 of the available apartments are occupied.
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It is no surprise families are having a hard time finding a home and moving out of the city.
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Another major cause of this housing crisis is that the income of most New Yorkers has not kept up with inflation and rent increases.
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To make matters worse, the number of available apartments available for less than 1500 is steadily decreasing.
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So the data is clear.
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The city has a housing crisis.
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The question is how should the city go about solving this problem?
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The administration has put forward a complicated set of reforms to create more housing.
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I want to recognize the extraordinary effort that our community boards, neighborhood associations, advocates, council members, and council staff have made to understand and analyze the administration's proposal, which is over 1300 pages.
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We have received volumes of very helpful input from every corner of the city, from other cities, and from experts throughout the country.
