The citymeetings.nyc logo showing a pigeon at a podium with a microphone.

citymeetings.nyc

Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.

TESTIMONY

Sabrina Lippman, CEO of Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County, on strong support for City of Yes zoning reforms to increase affordable housing and homeownership

3:04:49

·

158 sec

Report an issue

Sabrina Lippman expresses strong support for the City of Yes proposal, urging the City Planning Commission to vote in favor of the zoning reforms. She emphasizes the importance of affordable housing and homeownership in building an equitable city, highlighting Habitat for Humanity's 40-year history of creating homes for low to moderate income families.

  • Lippman particularly supports strategies that enable more homeownership opportunities, including accessory dwelling units, universal affordability preference, and missing middle housing.
  • She points out that New York City's homeownership rate is less than half the national average, indicating current housing policies are insufficient.
  • Lippman views the City of Yes as a critical step towards building a more equitable and affordable New York City.
  • Strong support for the City of Yes proposal
  • Importance of affordable housing and home ownership
  • New York City's low homeownership rate compared to national average
  • Support for accessory dwelling units and district fixes
  • Support for universal affordability preference
  • Support for missing middle housing through town center zoning and transit-oriented development
  • Proposal as a step towards building a more equitable and affordable New York

[EXPERIMENTAL]

Which elements of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity were discussed in this testimony?

  • UAP
  • Town Center Zoning
  • ADU
  • Transit-Oriented Development

The following are AI-extracted quotes and reasoning about which elements of the proposal were discussed in this testimony.

This is a quick, close approximation. Occasionally, the connection between a testimony's transcript and specific elements of City Planning's proposal is tenuous.

Read about this AI-generated analysis here.

UAP

"implementing a universal affordability preference to allow buildings to add at least 20% more housing if the additional homes are permanently affordable"

This quote directly mentions the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) element of the City of Yes proposal. It accurately describes the key feature of UAP, which is allowing buildings to add 20% more housing if it's affordable.

Town Center Zoning

"Conducive to condo and cooperative development through town center zoning and transit oriented development."

This quote directly mentions town center zoning as part of the strategies that Habitat for Humanity supports in the City of Yes proposal. It is presented as a way to enable and support 'missing middle' housing and condo/cooperative development.

ADU

"We at Habitat particularly want to emphasize strategies that will support homeowners and enable more homeownership opportunities to be created, including permitting accessory dwelling units and district fixes, This will provide more space for multigenerational families"

This quote directly mentions accessory dwelling units as part of the strategies that Habitat for Humanity supports in the City of Yes proposal. It also mentions that ADUs will provide space for multigenerational families, which aligns with the proposal's intent.

Transit-Oriented Development

"Conducive to condo and cooperative development through town center zoning and transit oriented development."

This quote directly mentions transit-oriented development as part of the strategies that Habitat for Humanity supports in the City of Yes proposal. It is presented alongside town center zoning as a way to enable and support 'missing middle' housing and condo/cooperative development.

About this analysis:

This analysis is done by AI that reasons whether or not a quote from the testimony discusses a particular element of the proposal.

All the prompts and data are open and available on Github.

You can search for testimonies that mentioned a specific element in the table on the main meeting page.

When an element is explicitly stated in the testimony (e.g. "Universal Affordability Preference" or "UAP"), the analysis is accurate.

But the connection between a quote from the testimony and an element of the proposal is sometimes implicit.

In these cases, the AI might eagerly label a testimony as discussing a proposal when the connection is tenuous, or it might omit it entirely.

↗ Why are there transcription and diarization errors?
Sabrina Lippman
3:04:49
Good afternoon.
3:04:50
Very, very happy to be here.
3:04:52
My name is Sabrina Littmann.
3:04:53
I am the new CEO of habitat for humanity, New York City, and Westchester County.
3:04:58
And I wanna start by thanking the entire city planning commission for the opportunity to testify into the Adams administration for proposing the city of yes.
3:05:08
I am here to express our incredibly strong support for proposal and to urge you to vote in favor of these critical zoning reforms that will allow for the creation of more housing across all of our communities.
3:05:19
Habitat and YC in Westchester knows the power and importance of affordable housing and home ownership as we've spent the past 40 years building and preserving more than 26100 homes for low to moderate income families in all five boroughs.
3:05:33
Affordable home ownership is a critical part of the housing continuum.
3:05:38
In order to build an equitable city, it is imperative to invest in solutions that build family and community equity.
3:05:44
And with the capital resources and innovative spirit, our affordable and market rate housing sector brings to the table, New York City should be the envy of the nation.
3:05:53
And how to equitably house our neighbors.
3:05:55
But regrettably, we continue to lag behind with the homeownership rate at Upholstery 30% less than half the national average.
3:06:03
It is our existing housing policies are insufficient to meet the ever increasing demand.
3:06:09
We all have a responsibility to our fellow New Yorkers, and the families would be a part of our community if given the opportunity.
3:06:16
The city of yes, updates our collective toolbox of strategies to help meet current needs and advance equity building by enabling the construction of more housing in every neighborhood.
3:06:30
We at Habitat particularly want to emphasize strategies that will support homeowners and enable more homeownership opportunities to be created, including permitting accessory dwelling units and district fixes, This will provide more space for multigenerational families, implementing a universal affordability preference to allow buildings to add at least 20% more housing if the additional homes are permanently affordable and enable and support the missing middle housing.
3:06:59
Conducive to condo and cooperative development through town center zoning and transit oriented development.
3:07:06
Time and again are leaders speak of building a more equitable and affordable New York.
3:07:11
This is it.
3:07:12
This is a big step in laying that foundation for this more equitable city.
3:07:17
Thank you again so much for the opportunity to testify today.
3:07:20
We look forward to continuing our partnership with the city and serving Low Income families in need of affordable home ownership.

Subscribe to the citymeetings.nyc newsletter

Highlights of meeting moments and curious claims every 1-2 weeks.

Read previous issues

Citymeetings.nyc pigeon logo

Is citymeetings.nyc useful to you?

I'm thrilled!

Please help me out by answering just one question.

What do you do?

Thank you!

Want to stay up to date? Sign up for the newsletter.