Sen. Jessica Ramos, former Assemblyman Michael Blake, former comptroller Scott Stringer, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, Comptroller Brad Lander and Sen. Zellnor Myrie participate in a District Council 37 New York City mayoral forum, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, in New York. Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
NEW YORK CITY — Several of the city’s mayoral candidates are rolling out their housing plans with some offering in-depth policy prescriptions and others little more than a wish list.
One thing that all of the candidates agree on is that the city is experiencing a housing crisis. With a vacancy rate of under 2%, median rents in Brooklyn rose to $3,600 in February (by another metric, average rent is $4,035), according to NY1. Manhattan’s average rental price hit $5,368 in February. The median home price in Brooklyn this month was $825,000, according to Realtor.com.
Attorney Jim Walden’s plan is most detailed so far
On Thursday, Independent candidate Jim Walden released the most detailed housing policy so far in the mayoral race — weighing in at 100-plus pages. According to Walden, his “balanced” policy would add more than 50,000 units each year through innovation and cutting red tape.
One innovation includes a new type of residential unit with rent set at 25% of each borough’s median income, as opposed to the current Area Median Income (AMI) calculation based on income across all of New York City and parts of Westchester. Between 30 and 35% of the new housing, depending on land value, would be affordable, Walden said.
Rules for the new housing would be enforced through private arbitrations, not the backlogged housing court.
Walden proposes targeted upzoning — with community board approval, and rezoning on a “spot” basis for individual projects, with the consent of community boards in less-dense areas. To reduce red tape, he proposes creating a single agency with the expertise, staffing and authority to approve projects. Walden says he will target “zombie” properties and warehoused apartments.
Walden’s NYCHA proposal would permit public developments to occupy their full blocks by building over fenced-in lawns and parking lots, with the approval of NYCHA tenants. The program would rebuild 7% of NYCHA properties each year and would include a jobs plan. Qualified NYCHA tenants would be offered rent-to-own options.
His plan also includes provisions for housing the homeless and populations with special needs, including the mentally ill.
Myrie’s ‘Rebuild NY’ housing plan
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie says his 26-page “Rebuild NYC” housing plan aims to build and preserve one million homes over ten years. That figure includes 200,000 units of “organic growth.”
Myrie’s ideas include building mixed-income public housing units to generate revenue for NYCHA, increasing allowable density in Midtown Manhattan (“Mega Manhattan”), building in industrial areas “sandwiched” between residential neighborhoods and more.
On Monday, Myrie released more details on the section of his plan focusing on building mixed-income housing on aging public sites, like school buildings.
Comptroller Brad Lander’s ‘state of housing emergency’
Comptroller Brad Lander says in his 36-page housing plan that he will declare a “state of emergency on Day One” in order to cut through red tape, build 500,000 new units of housing over ten years, protect tenants from eviction and skyrocketing rents, and increase pathways to home ownership.
Lander would streamline and expedite the ULRP review process and build a Citizens Assembly to develop a vision plan. Rezoning actions in compliance would go through an alternative 90-day review process, not through the City Council.
Lander would enable co-housing and similar alternatives, expand basement dwellings, launch Home Share NYC and revive the original City of Yes proposal by putting it on the ballot.
Lander also puts forward several tenant protection initiatives and dramatic increases in funding for HPD and NYCHA.
Scott Stringer’s ‘Mitchell-Lama 2.0’
Former Comptroller Scott Stringer has released a 7-page housing plan based on four pillars: unlocking public lands using a “Mitchell-Lama 2.0” middle-income program, holding “bad landlords” accountable, funding nonprofits and MWBEs to create community housing, and revitalizing NYCHA.
Stringer’s Mitchell-Lama 2.0 envisions transforming thousands of vacant and underutilized city-owned properties into affordable housing developments, with at least 50% designated as low- or middle-income.
To get rid of bad landlords through a “Robin Hood Housing Plan,” Stringer would use eminent domain to seize properties — paying the landlords fairly — and turn them over to responsible property owners.
UPDATE: On Wednesday, Stringer released his new “ROOF” policy, which aims to build 42,000 “family-size” units with two or more bedrooms.
Speaker Adrienne Adams
As speaker of the NYC Council, Adrienne Adams has been immersed in housing issues within an equity framework. In December 2022, she released her Housing Agenda to Confront the City’s Crisis, outlining actions to deal with the housing shortage, deepen affordability and preserve housing. In November 2023, the Council enacted Adams’ Fair Housing Framework Act, which requires the city to establish targeted housing production goals for each community district.
During City & State’s mayoral forum on Monday, Adams said the City Council, under her leadership, will never say no to housing expansion. She aims for 120,000 new units.
Michael Blake: ‘Welcome Home’
Rev. Michael Blake, a “Son of the Bronx,” would also drop AMI and implement a “local median-income” standard for affordable housing.
Like Stringer, Blake says he will deploy Mitchell-Lama 2.0, especially for public-sector workers and union members. He aims to build 600,000 new units and preserve a portion of them for returning city residents— a “Welcome Home” initiative.
Blake would tax second homes and vacation homes and fight to end the use of credit scores as housing application criteria.
Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani
Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani says he will triple the city’s production of “publicly subsidized, permanently affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized homes,” constructing 200,000 new units over the next 10 years. He will fast-track any 100% affordable development.
Mamdani pledges to double the money to preserve public housing, activate underutilized areas like parking lots for affordable housing and invest city money directly in upgrading public housing. He would build affordable housing on public housing land.
Mamdani told the Architect’s Newspaper he would use $100 billion of city money for the plan.
State Sen. Jessica Ramos
State Sen. Jessica Ramos from Queens plans a Green New Deal for Public Housing, which includes investing in public housing to improve living conditions, create union jobs, and make buildings more sustainable without privatizing them. She describes public housing as a “critical community asset.”
In Ramos’ housing one-pager, she says she would expand homeownership for working families through down payment assistance and affordable housing programs, support vacant office conversions into affordable units and expand supportive housing.
Former Gov. Cuomo’s ‘ChatGPT’ housing plan
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a 29-page housing proposal last week that aims to build 500,000 housing units over ten years.
One highlight involves ensuring the Section 485-x tax abatement “sufficiently incentivizes” new development. He proposes a new $5 billion State-City Capital Fund to compensate for the higher costs related to 485-x.
Cuomo says he would leverage NYC retirement funds to help finance $2.5 billion of affordable housing. He would increase the number of affordable units available at the 30-50% AMI level, which would require higher AMI levels in the same building to make projects viable.
Other parts of his program would focus on office-to-residential conversions, upzoning in Midtown Manhattan and overhauling the ULURP process to reduce the influence of City Council members and local residents.
Cuomo’s plan is incomplete in some areas. His proposals to “Reimagine NYCHA” and “Reduce Homelessness” will be addressed in the future.
In explaining the garbled passages, Cuomo campaign spokesperson Rich Azzopardi told Futurism that Cuomo’s one-armed policy advisor, Paul Francis, generated the glitches while using voice dictation software.
Francis told The New York Times that the errors were his, saying, “What happens when you dictate is that sometimes things get garbled.”
