New York City’s housing crisis isn’t new, and it’s getting worse as the years go by.
Across the city, millions of residents are struggling to find and keep a place to live. Rent is climbing faster than wages, affordable housing is in short supply, and homelessness remains a pressing and unresolved issue. Despite a gleaming skyline filled with high-end luxury apartments, a great number of New Yorkers are caught in a daily fight to stay afloat.
At the root of this crisis is a brutal mismatch between income and housing prices. As of early 2025, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan is over $4,000 a month, adding up to about $48,000 a year. Meanwhile, the median household income is $81,600. This is hardly sustainable unless renters spend well above the recommended 30% of their income on housing. In New York City, it’s not uncommon for residents to spend half or more of their monthly paycheck just to keep a roof over their heads.
For low-and middle-income households, this is, and has been for a while, an extremely dire issue. People must either live in an overcrowded apartment, move far from the city center, or live in shelters or on the streets. In February 2025, 114,791 people were found sleeping in New York City shelters. Thousands more slept unsheltered in public spaces, and more than 200,000 temporarily doubled up in the homes of others. Overall, it can be estimated that more than 350,000 people were without homes in New York City in February 2025.
Despite the scale of the crisis, the solutions have remained limited, slow, and, in many cases, out of reach.
New York City’s housing crisis didn’t appear overnight; it’s the result of decades of systemic issues. The problem worsened in the 1970s after years of disinvestment in low-income neighborhoods, white flight, and the city’s near-bankruptcy, which led to cuts in public services and housing maintenance. In the 1980s and 1990s, gentrification began to reshape whole neighborhoods, pushing longtime residents out as property values soared. The 2008 financial crash and the COVID-19 pandemic added new layers of strain, driving up rents while wages stagnated. Today, with demand far outpacing supply and affordable housing increasingly scarce, New Yorkers are facing the most intense housing pressure in generations.
The Department of House Preservation and Development, otherwise known as HPD, is actively trying to combat these issues that have been disrupting New York for years. HPD helps in a variety of ways, including rent assistance, vouchers for eligible households, supportive loan programs, and more.
Ann Rivera, an office worker at HPD, spoke about the efforts of HPD to alleviate the crisis. “To be honest, HPD is doing its best at the moment. We are currently understaffed and have been for quite some time.”
Unfortunately, overwhelming housing issues cause burnout in HPD workers, which slows down their response time. “Managing two or three jobs, each with various tasks and standards, can be very challenging. People are burning out, which leads to missed deadlines and things slipping through the cracks,” Rivera said.
Regardless, even when labeled “affordable,” many of these properties are anything but that. Rents are calculated based on area median income (AMI), which can be misleading in a city where multimillion-dollar salaries skew the math. Subsequently, a so-called affordable unit might still cost $2,000 a month, well beyond the means of someone working full-time at minimum wage.
Contractors may continue to build new properties, but the majority of new units remain targeted toward high-income renters or investors. This is due to a couple reasons, one being zoning laws, or regulation laws that determine how land can be used in a certain area. On the surface, this seems helpful for regulating and distributing land; however, the reality is that these laws limit affordable housing and drive up prices, ultimately making these houses inaccessible to low-income New Yorkers.
“I agree that much of what we call affordable housing is not truly affordable for everyday people who see these developments going up in their neighborhoods. Imagine watching a brand-new development rise right next to your run-down apartment building, only to find that you don’t qualify to move next door despite having contributed to that community for so long,” Rivera said.
Gentrification adds another layer of issues. In neighborhoods like Harlem, Bushwick, and the South Bronx, longtime residents are being priced out as new buildings are built. With new developments, property values and surrounding rents climb, pushing out working-class families and cultures from entire communities. What’s left behind is displaced residents in search of housing in outer boroughs or locations outside the city.
These shifts hit the hardest in communities that have faced systemic barriers. People of color, immigrants, and single-parent households are disproportionately impacted by rising costs and displacement. The scars of redlining, racist zoning laws, and discriminatory mortgage practices still shape the housing map of the city today. In places that already lack sufficient public investment, whether it’s access to quality schools, clean air, or reliable transit, housing instability further deepens inequality.
“My rent personally was increased $300, as someone who is in a single-parent, low-income household, it made living so much harder to sustain,” said Anayah Hogue ’26, a student at Bronx Science who has been directly involved and affected by the current housing crisis in New York City.
It’s not only an economic issue; it’s a health issue too. The stress of living without stable housing takes a toll. Families report worsening mental health, and children experience education disruptions, often forced to move frequently or sleep in unstable environments. Doctors and social workers see the ripple effects daily, from ER visits to school absences.
Public housing, which used to offer a more stable option, is struggling too. The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) oversees more than 170,000 public apartments, but those buildings are deteriorating fast. Years of underfunding have led to crumbling infrastructure, such as moldy walls, faulty boilers, peeling lead paint, and broken elevators. Tenants may wait years for repairs. Federal funding has been inconsistent, and while there have been attempts to fix these issues through public-private partnerships, many fear these deals will lead to privatization and the eventual loss of affordable units altogether.
There have been some solutions being considered in the past. In 2019, the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act brought new hope by closing loopholes in rent laws and limiting evictions. However, enforcement is patchy and inconsistent across boroughs. In 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the Housing Compact, which aimed to create 800,000 new homes over the next decade. Though the plan included zoning reforms to encourage building near transit hubs and in suburban areas, the plan was ultimately scrapped, facing resistance from lawmakers and residents in wealthier suburbs who didn’t want more density, as well as budgeting issues.
Mayor Eric Adams has echoed calls for reform, urging the city to think differently about housing supply. His administration has pushed for faster permitting and streamlining construction timelines, but critics argue that these efforts still fall short of addressing affordability at its core. Without deeply subsidized units, even rapid construction won’t help those most in need.
New York City is actively pursuing a range of legislative and policy initiatives to address its ongoing housing crisis. In December 2024, the City Council passed the “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” zoning reforms, aiming to create over 82,000 new homes by easing restrictions on accessory dwelling units, converting commercial spaces to residential use, and promoting transit-oriented development. Complementing this, the Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses (FARE) Act, effective June 11, 2025, shifts the responsibility of broker fees from tenants to landlords, reducing upfront rental costs. At the state level, Governor Hochul’s FY 2025 budget introduces the 485-x tax incentive to stimulate affordable housing construction and extends the 421-a program to support ongoing projects. Additionally, the Housing Access Voucher Program is proposed to provide rental assistance to low-income households, aiming to prevent evictions and promote housing stability. These combined efforts reflect a comprehensive strategy to increase housing supply, enhance affordability, and protect tenants across the city.
There are glimpses of innovation. For example, Governor Hochul’s compact plan has proposed turning vacant office buildings into apartments. Others are experimenting with modular construction, which could cut costs and speed up timelines. Still, these ideas require political will and serious funding. There’s also a risk that these solutions just become trendy talking points unless they’re tied to long-term strategies that prioritize equity.
Tenant advocacy has been one of the more promising developments in recent years. Groups like the Crown Heights Tenant Union, Make the Road New York, and Housing Justice for All have organized rent strikes like marching at City Hall and pushing lawmakers to act. These alliances center housing as a human right, not just a financial asset. Their demands include stronger rent caps, protections for undocumented renters, and a massive investment in public housing stock.
Landlords, meanwhile, argue that increasing regulation would make it harder to maintain buildings and that the real solution lies in easing zoning restrictions and allowing more construction. But for many renters, that argument rings hollow when luxury towers sit half empty and families double or triple up in one-bedroom apartments.
It’s clear that piecemeal solutions won’t be enough. The housing crisis intersects with so many other issues, including wages, education, transportation, racial justice, and even climate resilience. When a city fails to house its residents affordably, it starts to fail in other ways, too. Ranging from essential workers leaving or burning out, local businesses suffering, and students falling behind. Neighborhoods lose the very people who gave them character and life.
At its core, this isn’t a debate about square footage or zoning maps; it’s about who gets to live in New York and who doesn’t. It’ll just keep getting worse until the city becomes unrecognizable to the people who built it, leaving those in power no choice but to come to a solution.
And by then, it might be too late.
Despite a gleaming skyline filled with high-end luxury apartments, a great number of New Yorkers are caught in a daily fight to stay afloat.