Housing and Neighborhoods

OneNYC is a comprehensive sustainability plan for New York City’s future.

Goal: Create homes for nearly a million more New Yorkers while making housing and neighborhoods more affordable and sustainable.

Housing Supply

We are tracking the number of new housing units created since the start of the plan in 2007, as well as the size of the total housing stock, to ensure that the city is meeting the supply portion of its goal. The nearly one million New Yorkers projected to be added to the city’s population between 2005 and 2030 will require 314,000 new units of housing.

To track the creation of new units, we look at housing completion data, i.e., the number of newly issued Certificates of Occupancy (including Temporary Certificates of Occupancy). These indicate that a new residential unit is ready for occupancy. Certificates of Occupancy document new units added through new construction, but they do not account for demolition of existing units, units created (or lost) through changes of use (e.g., loft conversions), or subdivisions or mergers of existing units. Thus, it is an incomplete measure of net additions to total housing supply.

To get a greater sense of how supply is changing, we also track the number of existing units of housing stock in NYC from the triennial Housing and Vacancy Survey (HVS).

Housing Affordability

We are tracking housing affordability by looking at two indicators: 1) the number of new units of housing affordable to the typical NYC household, and 2) the vacancy rate of apartments across different rental rates.

To calculate the first indicator, we look at the total number of housing units for rent, and then what percentage of those units would be affordable to a household earning the median income in that year. For example, in 2008, the median income of a household in NYC was $45,000 according to the HVS, which translates to affordable monthly housing costs of no more than $1,125 (30% of the monthly gross income for that household). This indicator tells us about the changing cost of housing, and how changes in income relate to the changing cost of housing. If housing was becoming more affordable in NYC, we would expect the amount of housing available to a typical New Yorker to increase.

To calculate the second indicator, we look at the net rental vacancy rates across different price categories. In general, the vacancy rate tells us about the relationship between supply and demand. Vacancy rates below 5% indicate a housing emergency (very low supply and/or very high demand). Typically vacancy rates in NYC are higher for luxury and more expensive apartments while they are lower for less expensive apartments, indicating a relative shortage of adequate inexpensive housing options. PlaNYC seeks to increase the availability of inexpensive housing, which would be indicated by a higher vacancy rate for lower rent market segments.

Housing Sustainability

We are looking at both access to transit (for work and non-work trips) as well as energy usage to track whether NYC is meeting the sustainability portion of our housing goals.

For the transit criteria, we look at the percentage of new building permits issued for residential units that are located within a 1/2 mile of a transit node (e.g. subway stop, commuter rail station). Access to transit options will enable future New Yorkers to live more sustainably. At the inception of PlaNYC, 69% of building permits issued for residential units in the city were within a ½ mile of transit, and our aim is to increase this amount. Reaching this goal is facilitated by the NYC zoning strategy, which up-zones areas close to transit to allow additional density. Meanwhile, areas far from transit are down-zoned, which has the simultaneous impact of preserving the character of those neighborhoods. The number of permits issued should not, however, be equated with housing completion data.

We measure the energy used per capita by NYC residential buildings to track the energy intensity of our housing stock from year to year. We expect residential energy usage, and per capita GHG emissions, to fall as the effects of the Greener Greater Buildings Bill (passed December 2009) and other actions take effect.