Adams directs NYC agencies to find city-owned land for potential housing development

Mayor Eric Adams is finding new ways of meeting his goal of building 500,000 new homes in New York City over the next decade. The mayor on Wednesday signed an executive order directing every city agency to determine if housing can be built on property it owns. As the New York Times first reported, this could mean constructing new homes on properties like underused parking lots or garages.

“If there’s any land within the city’s control that has even the remotest potential to develop affordable housing, our administration will take action,” Adams said.

“To solve a generational affordable housing crisis, we must bring new innovative ideas to the table and activate all city agencies, whether they are directly involved in creating housing or not, to help deliver for New Yorkers.”

The executive order creates the City Housing Activation Task Force, comprised of representatives from various city agencies. The task force will review city-owned land to identify potential sites for housing development. According to Adams, all locations that can be used to further housing production without “disruption to critical municipal operations will be considered.”

According to the Times, a list of possible sites will be available early next year; libraries and park space will not be razed for housing, the mayor’s office told the newspaper.

The Adams administration is working towards creating 500,000 new homes in the city by 2032 to address the city’s housing crisis. The mayor’s City of Yes for Housing Opportunity updates outdated and restrictive zoning rules to build “a little more housing in every neighborhood.”

The first major neighborhood rezoning under Adams was approved by the City Council this month, bringing 7,000 new homes to the East Bronx. Next up is Midtown South, where the plan calls for 4,000 new homes in four areas of the neighborhood between 23rd and 40th Streets and 5th and 8th Avenues.

Early this year, Adams also announced plans to advance 24 residential developments on city-owned properties to create and preserve over 12,000 affordable apartments. The sites include 388 Hudson Street in Greenwich Village, the Hunters Point South Parcel E in Long Island City, parking lots in Inwood and Prospect Heights, and the Grand Concourse Library in the Bronx, among others.

Gov. Kathy Hocul last summer issued a series of executive orders to spur development, including one mandating state agencies to find vacant properties across New York that can be repurposed for housing, like a vacant 13-acre site on Long Island and a former state prison in Chelsea, which is set to become 124 permanently affordable apartments.

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