Facing the Housing Crisis
The Land Use, Housing & Zoning (LUHZ) Committee is committed to facing our district’s housing challenges, including historically high rent prices and emergency-level vacancy rates. With its world class transit resources and high-density zoning, more than many Community Boards across the city, CB5 is positioned to significantly contribute to housing production. At the same time, CB5 faces unique challenges like office-to-residential conversions, exorbitant land values, and a lack of publicly-owned vacant lots.
As articulated in our FY2026 Statement of District Needs, affordable housing is crucial not only for ensuring resident well-being but also for ensuring the district’s long-term economic and social vitality. Vacancy rates have reached historic lows at 1.4%, while our homeless shelters are operating at peak capacity with 120,000 individuals as of February 2024, leaving many vulnerable individuals and families without stable housing. Relying solely on incentives and government agencies to create affordable housing is insufficient, especially when over half of our city is rent-burdened and a third of our residents are severely rent-burdened.
Without access to affordable housing, CB5 risks becoming an exclusive enclave, inaccessible to the very people who have historically contributed to its vibrancy and success. Maintaining a mixed-income community ensures that CB5 remains a place where people of all backgrounds can live, work, and engage in public life. LUHZ has called on the City to act decisively in addressing the affordable housing crisis by adopting a multi-layered strategy that includes increasing the supply of affordable units, preserving existing affordable housing, repurposing vacant spaces, and addressing the structural barriers to affordability. In turn, the City has delivered through monumental policy changes like City of Yes, the Midtown South Mixed Use Rezoning Plan, and the Manhattan Plan which will see significant affordable housing development across the city and in CB5.
The Manhattan Plan
The Department of City Planning (DCP) is in the process of creating the Manhattan Plan, which will create tools to add 100,000 housing units across the borough within ten years.
Why does Manhattan need a plan?
Public Engagement Process: Submit to DCP
The Land Use, Housing & Zoning Committee has contributed to the DCP’s public engagement process for several months. Starting in October, the DCP will process these recommendations; it is expected to publish the Manhattan Plan by the end of 2025.
1st Public Hearing on Manhattan Plan at LUHZ Committee; initial comment resolution drafted and passed by committee
Resolution passed by Full Board
Initial Manhattan Plan comment submitted to DCP
LUHZ Committee commences virtual brainstorming on further recommendations
2nd Public Hearing; Additional recommendations passed by LUHZ Committee
We encourage everyone to submit recommendations at ManhattanPlan@planning.nyc.gov.
The DCP wants Manhattanites to fill out their Manhattan Plan Survey (available in English, Spanish, and Chinese).
The survey is especially useful as it includes interactive maps where participants can provide recommendations on specific Census blocks where housing should be encouraged
CB5 Resolutions on the Manhattan Plan
Affordable Housing Data Hub
The following sections of this page consolidate affordable housing and housing news pertaining to CB5, including resolutions passed by LUHZ. Future updates will include educational information on the history of affordable housing programs and where constituents can connect to housing resources.
CB5’s Demographics and Housing Stock
- Department of City Planning’s Housing Production Snapshot, 2024
- On slides with maps, add the Midtown-Times Square and Midtown South-Flatiron-Union Square Neighborhood Tabulation Areas (NTAs) to see CB5 data.
- Department of City Planning’s Population FactFinder, with 2010 and 2020 Census Data.
- New Yorkers for Parks’ Open Space Profile on CB5.
Reports on the District
Statement of District Needs, Fiscal Year 2026
FCNY Fellow Presentation: The State and Future of Housing in CB5
Featured Articles
- New York City Comptroller Lander, Accurately Assessing and Effectively Addressing Vacancies in NYC’s Rent Stabilized Housing Stock (2024).
- New York City Comptroller Lander, Spotlight: New York City’s Rental Housing Market (2024).
- Independent Budget Office of the City of New York, Inclusionary Housing And City Subsidies: A Review of Strategies For Creating New Affordable Housing From Bloomberg to Adams (2024).
- Urban Design Forum, Global Inspiration for New York City’s Housing Crisis, (2025).