New York City housing shortage

[1] The New York metropolitan area has long-standing exclusionary zoning practices, which were frequently rooted in racism.

Restrictive zoning regulations, which prohibited multifamily residential use and affordable housing, were intended to prevent non-whites from moving to white neighborhoods.

[2][3][6] Within New York City itself, housing supply has been artificially limited by "warehousing" of unrented apartments[7] particularly by landlords of rent-stabilized units who keep cheaper rental properties off the market in order to maintain overall profitability for their portfolio.

In the 2020s, some New York politicians pushed for ambitious plans to increase housing supply in New York by undoing some of the most restrictive zoning regulations to permit mixed-use development in areas previously exclusively for commercial use, allow accessory dwelling units in single-family zones, and allow dense housing construction near public transit stations.

However, from 2009 to 2018 the City built just 0.5 units per job as land use regulation, historical preservation, and political opposition ground housing production to a halt.

[17] Moreover, New York’s public housing stock, a vital tool for reducing homelessness and maintaining the number of affordable units, has fallen into disrepair as government management failed the City’s low-income residents.

[21] By the end of his administration, in 2021, none of the goals of the program had been reached: although Mr. de Blasio claimed that he had succeeded in "fighting inequality".

[22] Partially offsetting the growth in housing units was an increase in population to 8.6 million people.

[24] The ability and willingness of some older parents to pay for their adult children's housing and other expenses drives up rent and purchase prices.

[25] The California Health and Human Services Agency defines "severe overcrowding" as more than 1.5 persons per room.

[27] According to an agency funded by the New York State Education Department, there were 104,088 students (1 in 10) living in temporary shelters and identified as homeless in the city's school system for the period 2016-2017.

Following a 1981 consent decree arising from Callahan v. Carey, the city is required by law to provide shelter to any eligible person who asks for it.

Mayors Fiorello H. La Guardia and William O'Dwyer dealt with slum clearance and building public housing.