Already Short of Affordable Dwellings, Lower Manhattan is Slated to Lose Thousands More Over the Next Several Years
The New York City Housing Conference (NYHC), a non-profit organization that advocates for affordable housing throughout the five boroughs, publishes an annual analysis of the state of affordability in each of New York’s 51 City Council districts. The 2024 NYHC report ranks Council District 1 (roughly, Manhattan south of a jagged line formed by Canal, Houston, and Delancey Streets) 23rd in terms of the overall availability of affordable housing.
The NYHC’s demographic profile of Council District 1 documents that white and Asian residents of Lower Manhattan make up 77 percent of the local population (at 46 and 31 percent, respectively), while the corresponding metrics for the City as a whole are 31 and 14 percent. The local median household income is $109,352, compared to $63,998 for all of New York City. Downtown’s population density is 91.7 people per acre, which is more than double the corresponding measure of 44.7 people per acre for the average New York City Council District.
Local housing inventory was 95,951 units at the end of 2023, almost all of which were apartments (rather than houses). These dwellings were split between 76.4 percent rental tenants and 23.6 percent homeowners (meaning cooperatives and condominiums). Among rental apartments, 14,100 units (approximately 15 percent) are governed by some form of rent regulation, far lower than the 25 percent covered by programs like rent stabilization and rent control in the average City Council District.
Among all affordable units within Council District 1, 2,602 are slated to revert to market rate between now and 2028. This is a significantly higher total than the average City Council District, in which 1,167 will exit affordability protections in the next three years.
Council District 1 also contains 6,739 apartments operated by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), more than double the number in the average district, and 1,469 Section 8 units (in which rental assistance is provided to low-income households by paying private landlords on behalf of these tenants).
Between 2014 and 2023, according to the NYHC report, Council District 1 produced a total of 5,174 units of affordable housing, split between 1,485 newly constructed homes and 3,689 units that were “preserved” (usually through the extension of affordability protections).