There are up to 210,000 basements and cellars across the city that could potentially be converted into legal apartments—enough to move the needle on the city’s housing crisis without pouring a single new building foundation.
But the legalization process is fraught with political and technical pitfalls, which is why a study released Thursday suggests that the de Blasio administration should start with a pilot program to capture the lowest hanging fruit: the roughly 38,000 basements in single-family homes that could be converted without any major changes to city or state law.
“There is a convincing scale to this,” said Sarah Watson, deputy director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, which authored the report. “We’ve set out the major arguments for conversions and our recommendations about how a pilot program could be structured.”
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Trouble is, an interactive map provided along with the study shows that there is no ideal place to launch the pilot. While the simplest conversions can be found in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn and the Bronx—neighborhoods where homeowners would not be legally required to provide an additional parking space for each additional housing unit—these areas are not flush with suitable basements.
Far more potential exists in Staten Island, southeast Brooklyn, Queens and the eastern portion of the Bronx. These are also areas with high rates of foreclosure, suggesting that homeowners there would benefit from supplemental rental income. The only catch? By law, adding an apartment to a single-family home in many of these areas would require the creation of an additional parking space, posing significant economic and logistical challenges.
The study suggests finding a community that both supports the concept and has the inventory of basements, and calls on the city to provide homeowners with financial incentives, a list of knowledgeable contractors, expedited permits and waivers or modifications for certain building regulations that could be changed without city or state approval.
If the pilot program proves successful, the report argues, then the city could take bigger steps to change zoning and housing laws and unlock more apartments that would not be legal today. Cellars, for example, which are sunk deeper into the ground than basements are, cannot be occupied under current law.
The potential is huge. While it is unclear exactly how many of the city’s 210,000 below-grade units could be cost-effectively converted, bringing even a fraction of them up to code would provide a serious amount of new housing that would likely rent for less than the market rate. Of course, many of these units are already illegally occupied, and bringing them up to code would be safer for residents and emergency responders, and would give the city a better idea of a neighborhood’s true population.
In many areas, Queens in particular, opposition to the idea is fierce, which could be one reason why Mayor Bill de Blasio has been largely mum on the subject despite including it in his 2014 Housing New York plan.
But de Blasio’s office is currently working with Councilman Rafael Espinal on a separate pilot project in East New York. A task force including the departments of Buildings and City Planning and the Fire Department, which is wary of basement units for safety reasons, has been meeting regularly to hash out the first steps.
Hidden Housing study by crainsnewyork on Scribd
There are up to 210,000 basements and cellars across the city that could potentially be converted into legal apartments—enough to move the needle on the city’s housing crisis without pouring a single new building foundation.
But the legalization process is fraught with political and technical pitfalls, which is why a study released Thursday suggests that the de Blasio administration should start with a pilot program to capture the lowest hanging fruit: the roughly 38,000 basements in single-family homes that could be converted without any major changes to city or state law.
“There is a convincing scale to this,” said Sarah Watson, deputy director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, which authored the report. “We’ve set out the major arguments for conversions and our recommendations about how a pilot program could be structured.”
Trouble is, an interactive map provided along with the study shows that there is no ideal place to launch the pilot. While the simplest conversions can be found in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn and the Bronx—neighborhoods where homeowners would not be legally required to provide an additional parking space for each additional housing unit—these areas are not flush with suitable basements.
Far more potential exists in Staten Island, southeast Brooklyn, Queens and the eastern portion of the Bronx. These are also areas with high rates of foreclosure, suggesting that homeowners there would benefit from supplemental rental income. The only catch? By law, adding an apartment to a single-family home in many of these areas would require the creation of an additional parking space, posing significant economic and logistical challenges.
The study suggests finding a community that both supports the concept and has the inventory of basements, and calls on the city to provide homeowners with financial incentives, a list of knowledgeable contractors, expedited permits and waivers or modifications for certain building regulations that could be changed without city or state approval.
If the pilot program proves successful, the report argues, then the city could take bigger steps to change zoning and housing laws and unlock more apartments that would not be legal today. Cellars, for example, which are sunk deeper into the ground than basements are, cannot be occupied under current law.
The potential is huge. While it is unclear exactly how many of the city’s 210,000 below-grade units could be cost-effectively converted, bringing even a fraction of them up to code would provide a serious amount of new housing that would likely rent for less than the market rate. Of course, many of these units are already illegally occupied, and bringing them up to code would be safer for residents and emergency responders, and would give the city a better idea of a neighborhood’s true population.
In many areas, Queens in particular, opposition to the idea is fierce, which could be one reason why Mayor Bill de Blasio has been largely mum on the subject despite including it in his 2014 Housing New York plan.
But de Blasio’s office is currently working with Councilman Rafael Espinal on a separate pilot project in East New York. A task force including the departments of Buildings and City Planning and the Fire Department, which is wary of basement units for safety reasons, has been meeting regularly to hash out the first steps.
Hidden Housing study by crainsnewyork on Scribd
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