What can New York learn from cities around the world taking “big swings” to confront their housing crises?
New York is facing a housing crisis. The vacancy rate is less than 1.5%. Over half of all New Yorkers are rent-burdened, spending more than 30% of their incomes on rent. Despite the urgent need for housing, New York City lags behind many smaller U.S. cities in new construction. At the core of this crisis is an unquantifiable and intractable problem: access to safe, dignified, and stable shelter is fundamentally out of reach for most New Yorkers.
The housing crisis is not a problem for one sector to solve, nor is it a crisis that can be addressed with a single solution. For a real sea change in housing, leaders in development, tenants rights, architecture, planning, and policy will need to work together in radically new ways.
Global Inspiration for New York City’s Housing Crisis is a collection of case studies of cities around the globe who have taken big swings to address their housing crises. In exchanges with global housing leaders, Fellows studied efforts to deepen affordability, welcome new arrivals, build buy-in, cut red tape, and advance green solutions from around the world.
Explore the full publication and strategize with us to reshape the future of our city.
Expanding Non-Speculative Housing to Sustain Affordability for Generations
From Mission to Mechanism: A Whole Systems Approach to Sustainable Housing
From Immediate Arrival to Long-Term Settlement: Approaches for Welcoming New Arrivals
Removing Regulatory Barriers to Staffing and Building Affordable Housing
Financial, Legal, and Policy Tools that Deepen Housing Affordability
Bought-In But Built Short: Transforming Decision-Making to Enable Abundant Housing
Call to Action
Global Exchange Fellows looked across the globe for inspiration to make sure every New Yorker has access to secure housing. At the core of the housing crisis is an unquantifiable and intractable problem: access to safe, dignified, and stable shelter is fundamentally out of reach for most New Yorkers. It is not a problem for one sector to solve, nor is it a crisis that can be addressed with a single solution. For a real sea change in housing, leaders in development, tenants rights, architecture, planning, and policy will need to work together in radically new ways.
We aim to inspire New Yorkers to do just that, by looking at examples of cities who have already done the work to take courageous action and work in radically new ways. This moment calls for courageous leadership across the globe and here in New York City.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to members of the 2024-25 Big Swings Fellowship, who authored this report :
Zayba Abdulla, Polina Bakhteiarov, Heather Beck, Maia Berlow, Laura Capucilli, Julie Chou, Julian St. Patrick Clayton, Allan Co, Jacob Dugopolski, Koray Duman, Erik Forman, Rachel Goodfriend, Palak Kaushal, John Kimble, Teddy Kofman, Joel Kolkmann, Allison Lane, Kenny Lee, Emily Lehman, Rebecca Macklis, Hallie Martin, Maulin Mehta, Alexis Mendel, Sylvia Morse, Nasra Nimaga, Delma Palma, Marcelle Pena, Franz Prinsloo, Sadia Rahman, Neil Reilly, Doug Rose, Amy Schaap, Wendi Shafran, Ellen Shakespear, Kavya Shankar, Ashley Smith, Sarah Solon, Adán Soltren, Lauren Stander, Jen Tausig, Eli Tedesco, Catherine Vaughan, Silvia Vercher Pons, Nicole Vlado Torres, Laura Sara Wainer, Trax Wang, Pablo Zevallos
Additional support from Sam Maldonado
The views expressed here are those of the authors only and do not reflect the position of Urban Design Forum’s Board of Directors or Global Circle.
Editor
Clara Parker
Editorial Support
Dan McPhee, Katherine Sacco, Hadley Stack
Report Design and Illustration
Partner & Partners
Supporters
Global Exchange is made possible through support of our Global Circle. We thank Lead Sponsors KPF, Jamie von Klemperer and Turner Construction, as well as sponsors Apple Bank, CAMBA Housing Ventures, Charney, Cozen O’Connor, Fogarty Finger, HKS, One Architecture, Perkins Eastman, Skylight, Upside Collab and Zillow. Global Exchange is made possible with additional support from our Board of Directors, Director’s Circle, and company and individual members. Our programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature