Housing Manhattanites: A Report on Where and How to Build the Housing We Need

Executive Summary

This report, Housing Manhattanites, seeks to answer a critical question: Where in our borough can we build the housing that Manhattanites so desperately need?

The Housing Emergency

The unmet need for housing—especially affordable housing—is intense and growing. This is in part due to the significant drop in housing production in Manhattan in recent years. Since 2017, we are averaging just 6,000 new units built per year in our borough, only 21% of which were affordable.

The intense competition among tenants for the relatively few units available has pushed rents to unprecedented highs. Today, almost 40% of households in the borough are rent burdened (meaning they are forced to pay over a third of their income in rent). There are Manhattan families who are being forced to choose between paying the rent, covering medical bills, or buying groceries. It is a moral imperative that we produce more—and more affordable—housing for them.

Link to PDF: https://blocksandlots.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Housing-Report-01.31.2023.pdf