Yes on 2 to speed affordable housing

When families sit at their kitchen table every month and ask themselves, “Can we afford to stay here?” the answer is too often no. New York is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis that has affected every borough and income bracket except the ultra-wealthy.

Rents have risen much faster than wages, making homeownership out of reach for most, and even middle-class families with stable jobs are being priced out of neighborhoods where they have lived for generations. There were 154,000 public school students homeless last year, but only 3,057 new apartments were built for extremely low or very low-income New Yorkers — out of a total new construction of more than 40,000 units.

For too long, New York City has relied on one-off programs and slow fixes that fail to address the urgency of the moment. Displacement continues, homelessness increases, and the city’s patterns of inequality and segregation worsen. Too many New Yorkers find themselves faced with an impossible choice between paying rent and paying everything else.

This election, voters have the power to change that by voting Yes on Ballot Question 2, a common-sense reform that will accelerate the construction of affordable housing and help every neighborhood do its fair share to provide affordable housing.

We need to break through bureaucracy and delays. New Yorkers know that much of what gets built these days is luxury housing. Sleek towers with exorbitant prices dominate the skyline, while affordable projects the city desperately needs often remain stuck in limbo. Approval processes are slow, politicized and far too vulnerable to local obstruction. Even modest, large-scale proposals are often delayed for years or abandoned altogether, leaving families waiting while costs continue to mount.

Currently, even modest, large-scale affordable housing proposals can take years to go through the city’s review process, only to be blocked by powerful interests or endless red tape. Ballot Question 2 would change that. It creates a fast-track process specifically for 100% affordable, publicly funded developments.

The measure also speeds up the approval of mixed-income developments in the 12 neighborhoods where the fewest affordable housing units have been built in recent years. The proposal maintains the same level of Community Board review we currently have, but eliminates unnecessary delays that increase costs and discourage investment, and gives a boost to the affordable housing we need over the luxury development that saturates our communities.

This reform is not only a question of speed, it is also a question of fairness and accountability. It ensures that more neighborhoods share responsibility for building affordable housing. We must prioritize developing housing for the lowest-income New Yorkers who need it most, and every community must be part of the solution. This measure makes this possible.

Ballot Question 2 isn’t about politics, it’s a vote for progress and fairness. It’s a question of priorities. It’s about ensuring that families, older people and young people have a place in the city they love. A yes vote is a vote to build affordable housing faster, more fairly, and more equitably across New York.

Some critics might call this progressive, but progress always begins with structural reform. Question 2 gives the next mayor and city council the tools they need to deliver more affordable housing in every borough. This is not just a procedural change, as it represents progress toward breaking the cycle of inaction that has worsened inequality and segregation in our city.

Every delay has a cost. Every stalled project is a family waiting, another family left out, another neighborhood losing the diversity that defines New York. We cannot build an equitable city if only a few communities bear the burden of its affordable housing needs.

Voting yes on Question 2 means saying yes to more affordable housing and a stronger, fairer New York for all. This is a vote to move beyond rhetoric and toward results.

Because in a city built by workers, no one should have to wonder if they can afford to stay.

Williams is the executive director of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development.