Statement from NYC Comptroller Lander on Council’s City of Yes Vote

New York, NY — In response to the City Council’s vote on the City of Yes housing plan, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released the following statement: 

“Housing prices are crushing New York’s families, and one big reason is that for the past two decades, we’ve failed to build enough homes. We must change that. That’s why the City of Yes zoning reform, to build a little more housing in every neighborhood, is critical. 

“So it’s disappointing that politicians in some neighborhoods insist on parking lots over people, and won’t do their share to address the city’s housing crisis, even when it just means allowing small apartment buildings near transit stations. Yesterday, their obstinance denied homes to over 20,000 families.   

“Still, what passed the City Council’s Land Use Committee yesterday, which will allow the building of 80,000 new homes, is a big and crucial step in the right direction. I commend New York City Planning Commission Chair Dan Garodnick, First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer, and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams for their leadership in crafting a deal that will meaningfully increase the City’s housing supply. And I also praise those Council Members who focused their negotiations on securing funding to make sure more of the housing that gets built is actually affordable to working-class families.   

“But let’s be clear: City of Yes alone isn’t going to solve our affordability crisis. We’ll still need many more efforts like the one I was proud to lead in Gowanus, where 8,000 units of housing are rising, 3,000 of them affordable to working-class families. And we need new approaches to affordable homeownership, preserving distressed rental housing, expanding rental assistance and legal representation to protect tenants from eviction, and much more. 

“New Yorkers are rightly angry that the rent is too damn high – and home prices, too. Let’s channel that anger into doing more about it.”  

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