Open New York

We are a volunteer-led pro-housing organization. We advocate for equitable development that expands all housing options for New Yorkers, including both affordable and market rate housing. Affordable housing means affordable housing for everyone: public housing residents, those earning minimum wage, working families, public servants, immigrants, young people - all New Yorkers.

What do we support? 

We support making high-quality housing more abundant and available in neighborhoods across the region. Crucially, New York City should be focused on adding more housing in high-opportunity neighborhoods which are wealthier than average, and centrally-located with convenient access to jobs, public transit and highly-resourced schools. The amenities of high-opportunity neighborhoods should be available to more New Yorkers. New Yorkers should have more choices about where they live. The importance of neighborhoods for social mobility is clear: research has found that the neighborhood in which children grow up will affect their earnings and college attendance rates. New York’s outdated and unduly restrictive land use codes are exclusionary. We can do better. 

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Affordability 

We would like to see a New York that is open and accessible to all. Providing abundant housing is a key step in supporting broad-based affordability to New Yorkers at all income levels. New York City, which has not allowed market-rate housing to keep up with its growing economy, has simply given up on this task in the last sixty years. The City’s choice to restrict housing construction has made too much of the market-rate housing stock unaffordable to too many New Yorkers. We have an opportunity to fix this by building housing in desirable places.  

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How we advocate

A diverse City needs a diverse set of solutions. We are involved at multiple levels and pursue a variety of approaches. Moving from smallest to largest, we advocate for individual projects, for comprehensive neighborhood upzonings, and for City and State-wide policies. Open New York members engage in public comment processes including those at Community Boards. We have written a detailed plan for SoHo/NoHo. We stand for open and inclusive communities and join with residents and advocates against displacement such as the unfair treatment and relocation of previously homeless people housed in the Lucerne. 

We expect to make a full set of endorsements in the 2021 New York City electoral cycle. 

We join with a wide range of groups and interests to work to solve the crisis of housing affordability in our city. We aspire to expand our reach and range as Open New York grows.