Council pitches rival 'City For All' housing plan while mulling 'City of Yes' zoning package

NEW YORK — The City Council is pitching its “comprehensive” plan to tackle the housing crisis Friday as part of ongoing negotiations over Mayor Eric Adams’s own “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” zoning package ahead of its crucial final vote.

“City For All,” as the new plan is known, is billed as picking up where “Zoning for Housing Opportunity” leaves off: While the mayor’s plan aims to build “a little more housing” in every neighborhood by easing decades-old zoning restrictions, the Council’s proposal calls for “complementary” investment in affordable housing policies and infrastructure work.

“In order to ensure everyone in our city has safe and stable housing to continue contributing to the strength of our city and its economy, we must go beyond zoning reforms to address all the unrelenting housing pressures that leave New Yorkers struggling to afford finding or staying in homes,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams, who had hinted at the new framework last month. “Without holistic solutions, our city’s severe housing and affordability crisis will only worsen.”

Both plans come as New York faces its worst housing crisis in decades, with a rental vacancy rate of just 1.4%.

City For All would build on the zoning overhauls with increased funding for affordable housing production, preservation and ownership programs, plus legal services and other measures. It would further boost support for both the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Department of Buildings, which have struggled with understaffing in recent years.

The proposal would also “bolster” the city’s beleaguered housing voucher program, one of several long-running points of contention between the mayor and Council.

A key component of City For All would commit “significant” capital funding for infrastructure improvements to support the Big Apple getting bigger — an issue that came up several times during the marathon Council hearings last week for a “Zoning For Housing Opportunity” plan.

Negotiations between the Council and Adams administration continue ahead of the Council’s final vote later this year.