Racial justice and NYC’s affordability crisis

The affordability crisis gripping our city does not fall equally on New Yorkers, and solutions to it must confront the economic and racial inequities that shape who can afford to live, work, and raise a family here.

In neighborhoods long harmed by redlining, gentrification, and under-investment, Black and Brown families face economic pressures that are neither new nor incidental. These challenges are distinct from general affordability concerns and reflect decades of policy choices that have denied too many access to health, opportunity, and safety.

In New York City, the median Black and Latino households earn just 53 and 49 cents, respectively, for every dollar earned by a white household. These New Yorkers experience the highest rates of poverty and face significantly higher eviction rates. The disparities contribute to a rising wealth gap and determine who can afford housing, access childcare, and remain in our city at all. It’s why our city’s Black population has declined by nearly 200,000 people over the past two decades.

As affordability dominates public discourse, city leaders must pursue targeted solutions that account for these historical realities and advance justice. The affordability crisis is the cumulative effect of systems designed without — and often against — the interests of Black and Brown New Yorkers.

The incoming mayor and Council cannot fall back to class- and race-neutral policymaking and expect it to close these divides. That approach has failed our communities for generations.

Ensuring that policies are grounded in economic and racial justice requires building equity into the mechanics of government. Data analysis by race, ethnicity, and neighborhood must shape priorities and budget choices. Communities most affected by disparities need to be engaged, and their lived experiences must be incorporated into program design.

When government uses evidence, partnership, and accountability, justice becomes a core function — not an add-on.

In 2021, the Racial Justice Commission advanced reforms to address how structural racism is embedded in city government. As a result, New York City is now required to examine how its policies, services, and investments affect different racial and ethnic communities, and develop long-term racial equity plans. The voter-approved True Cost of Living Measure can indicate what it costs to live with stability across boroughs and family types, and whether policies are improving affordability and economic security, for whom and where — and whether racial justice is being meaningfully advanced.

While Mayor Adams has failed to release these required plans and measures, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani must prioritize releasing them and ensuring they spur action to confront disparities.

In recent years, we have also seen what racial justice in government can look like. Since 2022, our most diverse, women-majority City Council has put equity and justice at the heart of its work.

We advanced legislation, policy, and budget investments to address stark racial disparities in maternal health, including launching the first city-funded guaranteed income program for expecting mothers facing housing insecurity — an intentional response as one in four New York City children lives in poverty and child homelessness is rising.

We prioritized expanding full-day early childhood education seats for lower-income Black and Latino communities.

This Council established our state’s first trauma recovery centers to ensure crime victims from communities of color were no longer disregarded and left without the victim services that make neighborhoods safer.

And by launching CUNY Reconnect, we made it possible for more than 62,000 adults — mostly women and people of color — to return to college for degrees that advance their earning potential.

It’s no accident that the most diverse Council in history was also the most pro-housing in generations, approving the creation of more new homes through city-initiated land use plans in four years than the previous 20 years. Our efforts also secured more than $8 billion for greater affordability, homeownership opportunities, tenant protections, and neighborhood investments for New Yorkers who need them the most.

These are the types of equity-centered solutions needed.

Racial equity must be a driving force in how we address affordability and opportunity, because the affordability crisis is fundamentally a justice crisis. New York is at risk of becoming a city where only those with privilege can thrive. Reversing that trajectory relies on government choices.

The incoming mayor and City Council’s success in making the city more affordable depends on them directly confronting this truth: solving affordability requires advancing equity and justice.

Racial justice is not an ancillary issue to advancing affordability. It is at its core.

Adams is the outgoing City Council speaker from District 28 in Southeast Queens. Jones Austin is the CEO and executive director of the Federation of the Protestant Welfare Agencies.

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