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“The flooding crisis and the housing crisis are intertwined, trapping thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers,” the author writes. “City Hall needs to fast-track efforts to legalize illegal basement apartments to ensure they have basic safety features.”
Aaron Akaberi drowned in his Brooklyn home as torrential rain flooded his illegal basement apartment in October of last year. Flooding from Hurricane Ida killed 11 people in New York City in similar basement units just four years earlier. We are just entering the heart of hurricane season, and we have already had several severe storms, but Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s tentative efforts are not moving quickly enough to address this dangerous issue.
In New York City, the flooding crisis and the housing crisis are intertwined, trapping thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers. Experts estimate that tens of thousands of low-income tenants live in illegal basement apartments, which can quickly turn deadly during extreme storms. They are below grade, unregulated, and lack appropriate escape routes. Climate change will continue to exacerbate this danger as intense storms and flooding become even more common.
Mayor Mamdani has promoted the construction of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to provide alternatives to dangerous illegal apartments, including his recently announced “ADU for You” program. ADUs, smaller secondary homes such as backyard cottages or garage apartments, expand the housing supply and provide safer alternatives to illegal basement apartments.
Unfortunately, the mayor’s efforts to expand ADUs are not moving fast enough to fix the most important issues. To confront the threat, we need to move rapidly to make existing illegal apartments safer, loosen restrictions on ADU development, and focus subsidies on aboveground ADUs.
City Hall needs to fast-track efforts to legalize illegal basement apartments to ensure they have basic safety features. New York City officials are working on a pilot program, but still have not been able to finalize the rules after many delays. Housing advocates have slammed the proposed rules for imposing a long list of oppressive requirements, such as upgrading gas lines and putting 8-foot-long banners outside homes.
Instead, the city needs to streamline legalization of basement apartments by focusing on the most critical safety measures, such as having at least two exits and working flood and smoke alarms. These efforts should go along with full amnesty for homeowners attempting to legalize their apartments and follow the proper procedures.
Next, the city should loosen restrictions to increase the supply of new ADUs. Right now, the city has strict regulations on ADU construction that lock out most homeowners. In fact, an analysis by the Regional Plan Association (RPA) indicates that only 12 percent of the city’s 565,400 eligible properties would be allowed to have an ADU.
To overcome these limitations, the City Council should amend ADU rules to allow more flexibility on the number and size, and remove the owner occupancy requirement. The Bay Area and Los Angeles demonstrate what can happen with more lenient restrictions. In these areas, ADUs now provide 13 and 32 percent of the new housing stock, respectively, versus forecasts of less than 3.5 percent of new housing for New York City.
In addition to scrapping unnecessary restrictions, the city needs to follow the money and redirect subsidies to aboveground ADUs. Mayor Mamdani recently restarted the ADU Plus One program, which provides support of up to $395,000 to homeowners building ADUs. Unfortunately, these subsidies often go to the creation of risky new basement units. Scarce budget dollars should be limited to aboveground ADUs to make sure that new apartments are safe from flooding for decades to come.
City officials contend that ADU subsidy rules take into account flood projections to ensure that new basement apartments are safe. But this approach is short-sighted. Flood forecasts change frequently, and a report by NYC’s Comptroller projected that a third of the city’s basement apartments will face a significant risk of flooding by the 2050s.
New York City can’t solve its flooding crisis without also addressing its housing crisis. The low-income residents who are threatened by flooding in illegal basement apartments are priced out of safer housing options. ADUs provide a solution to both of these challenges, but only if the city acts boldly and quickly.
By shredding bureaucratic restrictions and accelerating aboveground ADUs, New York City can ramp up safer housing before disaster strikes again.
Will Duhl is a high school student in Brooklyn who researches extreme weather events with a professor at Columbia University’s Climate School and is editor-in-chief of StormReadyNYC.org, a website focused on educating New Yorkers about the impact of climate change on our local communities and how we can take action.