Opinion: Mamdani Has a Golden Opportunity to Address Housing and Climate Together

New York cannot fix affordability while ignoring rising flood menace and it cannot build resilient infrastructure that prices people out Flooding in Queens following Hurricane Ida Kevin P Coughlin Office of the Governor The campaign is over the ballots counted and now the hard part begins Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani ran on a promise to tackle New York City s affordability emergency pledging to triple the pace of affordable housing construction freeze rents and make housing attainable again Voters agreed the ballot measures that passed made clear that New Yorkers see expanding the housing supply as the city s most of urgent challenge But affordability alone isn t enough The floods that took lives and homes last month are a stark warning that resilience must be part of the remedy This is why Environmental Defense Fund Regional Plan Association the Association for Neighborhood Housing and Evolution and Cornell University are taking a new approach that addresses these two deeply intertwined realities New York cannot fix affordability while ignoring rising flood vulnerability and it cannot build resilient infrastructure that prices people out With a new administration preparing to take office this is the moment for a truly holistic approach that brings housing safety and long-term public stability under the same umbrella function d u ac var s d createElement 'script' s type 'text javascript' s src 'https a omappapi com app js api min js' s async true s dataset user u s dataset campaign ac d getElementsByTagName 'head' appendChild s document 'u kmqsczew vunxutxmd' Mayor-elect Mamdani s affordability campaign created a movement which has led to a mandate for his administration to tackle the housing problem once and for all That same movement compels New York City to return to its rightful place as the leader in the fight against setting change Yet we live in a moment in which we can no longer treat the intertwined housing affordability or weather crises separately as if they require different solutions They are all intrinsically linked and we have an incoming administration that has the opportunity to make both a report by acknowledging this hard truth and an impact by working to solve them for the future of New York To figure out how to do that we solicited a simple but urgent question how can New York build housing that is both affordable and resilient Our new review Agenda Solutions for the Circumstances and Housing Emergency in New York City draws on expert interviews mapping analysis and stakeholder workshops to find solutions The aftermath is a four-part framework for meeting New York s twin challenges head-on We know the stakes are high because tens of thousands of New Yorkers already face the liability of losing their homes to rising seas and more damaging storms RPA estimates that housing units could be lost to coastal flooding by displacing more than people Without decisive action that number is expected to triple by putting as a large number of as New Yorkers at threat And that loss of stock will only drive up the cost of rents and mortgages for years to come These figures make one thing clear affordability and resilience are inseparable parts of the same housing predicament Here s how the City of New York can solve the obstacle First it s imperative our leaders create a unified flood-resilient land use strategy New York presently plans housing land use and situation adaptation in silos which leads to building in high-risk areas while safer neighborhoods remain underdeveloped Instead of this piecemeal approach the city requirements one framework that directs increase to low-risk areas limits advancement in flood zones and puts equity and long-term safety first That means assessing housing requirements and setting exposure together requiring resilient design for all new buildings and evaluating the full costs and benefits of advancing in high-risk coastal areas It also means expanding affordable housing and green infrastructure in safer neighborhoods while maintaining affordability and restoring high liability blue zones to manage stormwater Such a comprehensive plan also requires us to safeguard our existing housing stock Much of the city s housing is aging and increasingly exposed to flooding yet retrofit programs are scattered and complicated to tackle New York requirements a one-stop user-friendly system that consolidates assistance expands backing across housing types and prioritizes low- and moderate-income households Streamlined access to grants loans and resilient design guidance will help residents stay safely in their existing homes and preserve the affordable housing the city already has This year s electoral contest was nothing short of a referendum on affordability which is why we recommend creating stability and wealth in safer neighborhoods As enhancement shifts to lower-risk neighborhoods rising rents will push out longtime residents unless protections are in place To prevent displacement the city should pair new advance with tools that build neighborhood wealth and local ownership Discouraging property flipping expanding co-ops and society land trusts and giving tenants and nonprofits first chance to buy buildings will help ensure that safer neighborhoods remain affordable and stable Certainly these efforts must be backed by a dedicated resilience fund New York now lacks a reliable funding source to protect homes and neighborhoods from escalating flood risks Coastal infrastructure projects which are only increasing in volume depend on inconsistent federal dollars and local resilience upgrades are chronically underfunded A dedicated resilience fund is needed to endorsement home retrofits green infrastructure and coastal protections through tools such as flood management fees or advance fees all structured to protect low-income residents Stable and reliable funding is essential if housing and infrastructure are to withstand the storms ahead Together these solutions point to a practical achievable way forward A new era of ambition and results are sweeping into City Hall at a time when crucial federal funds are treated like a political football New York City s leaders can rise above these challenges to overcome the housing and environment crises if we decisively acknowledge how intertwined they truly are We have created a roadmap forward for those decision makers to deliver precaution and affordability all in one New Yorkers cannot wait any longer for these solutions the time to put them in motion is now Anushi Garg is the Environmental Defense Fund s senior analyst for state resilient coasts and watersheds New York New Jersey Robert Freudenberg is the Regional Plan Association s vice president of power and environmental programs The post Opinion Mamdani Has a Golden Opportunity to Address Housing and Circumstances Together appeared first on City Limits