Opinion: Council’s City for All plan will work for Southeast Queens

Photo by Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit

By Rev. Dr. Phil Craig and Rev. Jeffery Thompson

There’s no denying that the housing crisis is hurting New Yorkers, especially in our community.

Rents are rising, homeownership is increasingly out of reach, and we’re seeing longtime New Yorkers driven out of the city. Gentrification, displacement, and homelessness undermine the health of our communities in Southeast Queens and across New York. The impacts of this crisis are very real: neighbors and family members are leaving the city, small businesses and cultural centers are threatened, and the fabric of our communities is being diminished.

There has been an active debate over the best way to move forward, and while reasonable people can disagree, there is no denying that the city needs to act.

Speaker Adrienne Adams and the City Council have delivered a comprehensive approach to address every aspect of this crisis with their City for All plan and modifications to the Zoning for Housing Opportunity (ZHO) citywide text amendment that would update the city’s zoning from its last update in 1961, when racial segregation promoted exclusion.

The full Council should support these advancements to begin remedying these wrongs on Dec. 5.

The City Council has secured a $5 billion investment in our communities – money that will go to improve our sewers, streets, parks, and other infrastructure, in addition to investments in affordable housing and homeownership. This visionary investment would not have been possible without Speaker Adams’ leadership, and it will directly deliver solutions our community has been requesting for years.

The City Council can seal the deal on these investments by voting for the modified version of ZHO. The changes they made came directly from feedback from communities like ours, and they strike a smart balance by adding new housing in places where it is appropriate. The Council smartly restricted basement and backyard apartments (“ADUs”) from flood zones, contextual zoning districts, and historic districts to protect our neighborhoods from overdevelopment that would impact their character and ensure the safety of residents. Together with the $5 billion investment, this change will go a long way towards helping to make housing available and affordable by supporting the creation of 80,000 new homes citywide where the infrastructure exists to support it.

Speaker Adams and the Council also recognized what many of us in Southeast Queens know: in neighborhoods lacking public transit access, residents depend on cars to get around. They changed the zoning reform proposal to ensure that parking is still built with new housing in our neighborhoods when needed. They also recognized that the LIRR does not provide the same kind of service as the subway, so they changed the rules for “transit-oriented development” to treat these stations differently.

Even with these modifications, the proposal is still one of the most pro-housing plans in the city’s history. It allows for housing to be built where it is appropriate, and to support our seniors and younger generations who are seeking to find a home and stay in the city. The City Council added an affordable housing component to ensure that working-class New Yorkers are not fighting against the highest bidder when they look for housing. These proposals will also ensure that when local nonprofits or faith leaders want to build affordable housing that serves the community, they do not face unnecessary obstacles.

With these changes and billions of dollars to deliver the investments that our communities need, we can finally begin to turn the tide on our housing crisis. I applaud Speaker Adams and the City Council for listening to our community, responding to feedback and making smart changes, and delivering a plan that will make a real difference.

This is not the end of the conversation, but it is a major step in the right direction. The City Council should support this plan on Dec. 5.

Rev. Dr. Phil Craig is the pastor of the Greater Springfield Community Church. Rev. Jeffery Thompson is the pastor of Amity Baptist Church and founding member of Queens Power.