Today, the Department of City Planning released updated text for its proposed Zoning for Housing Opportunity citywide text amendment that includes the affordability requirement for its Universal Affordability Preference to be 60% of Area Median Income (AMI) on average and makes the Deep Affordability Option for Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) a stand-alone choice. Speaker Adrienne Adams called for this in her State of the City address and released the following statement.

“Our city’s housing crisis has disproportionately impacted low-income and working-class New Yorkers who are struggling to find affordable homes and stay in their communities. According to the recent New York City Housing Vacancy Survey, the lowest-cost apartments are nearly non-existent, with a vacancy rate well below 1 percent. These conditions underscore the importance of deepening housing affordability, and it’s why I focused on deeper affordability and called for revising Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) to make the deep affordability option a stand-alone one that better meets the needs of New Yorkers in my State of the City address. The affordability levels in the new text for the Zoning for Housing Opportunity (ZHO) better reflect the growing need for prioritizing deeper affordability, and I welcome these changes. Once the citywide text amendment makes its way through the public review process, the Council looks forward to fully reviewing it. As a city, we must advance policies that secures affordable housing for all New Yorkers.”

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