Mayor Adams unveils housing plan: 100,000 new homes over the next 15 years

NYC housing crisis

Mayor Adam's announced his new plan to address the city's housing crisis. Fox 5 NY's Kendall Green reports.

NEW YORK - "Everyone is concerned about the affordability of living in the city and how we’re going to deal with this housing crisis," Mayor Adams said Thursday

Thursday, he announced a new plan to address the city's housing crisis.

Over the next decade it aims to add 100 thousand homes across the city and includes turning underused property into affordable housing.

"These conversion proposals for Mayor Adams they could do some real good," Michael Liebman, the Vice President of Wealth Way Equity Group.

Mayor Adams plan aims to loosen restrictions on single-family homeowners enabling them to build additional housing on their property.

Part of the initiative also does away with parking requirements for apartment buildings linked to pricey parking garages.

"Right now every two parking spots that are adding to take up a space for 1 studio apartment making housing more expensive for everyone," said Adams.

Plan to spur housing in every NYC neighborhood

Director of City Planning Dan Garodnick joined Good Day New York to talk about the plan to get more than 100,000 new homes over the next 15 years.

One of the more crucial elements aims to eliminate the rule restricting the transformation of thousands of offices across the city built before 1990 into housing, but that plan would require ditching the city's decades-old zoning rules that make that process much more complex.

Some of the plan's load like offering incentives for developers who create income-restricted housing would need to be carried by the state.

"Whether it's through tax abatement, whether its through ending the antiquated 12FAR cap," added Dan Garodnick, the director of City Planning.

"I think that's the whole ballgame. If you look at recently how the state has their attitude toward real estate programs, its not been so friendly to the developer or anyone whose interested in conversions you know," Liebman said.

It would offer a density bonus for developers who build more property in an area but would need enough crucial support in Albany where legislative sessions don't resume until January.

"I think you'll see blow back from people who think the developers are profiting too much," Liebman predicted.

The mayor though believes the results overtime, with enough approval, could be promising.

"Passing these new rules will help us create 100 thousand new homes," said Adams.

The rollout could create enough homes for a quarter million New Yorkers and create nearly 250 thousand jobs though if approved but wouldn’t take effect until next fall.