Zellnor Myrie wants to build one million housing units and fund more eviction attorneys

State Senator Zellnor Myrie wants to build one million new housing units in New York City in the next decade and protect tenants from eviction by expanding a city program that provides low-income New Yorkers access to housing court lawyers.

Myrie is one of the many candidates running for NYC mayor. As the race heats up, Brick Underground is interviewing the candidates who—if victorious—will go on to shape housing development in New York City. 

The mayor will oversee city agencies that regulate landlords, the implementation of NYC’s landmark climate law, Local Law 97, and new construction enabled by the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity plan. 

In short, it’s a big job, and there’s a lot of candidates who want to do it. Brick Underground caught up with Myrie on March 3rd to talk about how he’d tackle housing if he were to become NYC’s next mayor. 

If elected, Myrie hopes to more than double NYC’s housing production, provide more funding for the city’s right to counsel program, and expand that program to give owners access to an attorney if they’ve been victims of deed theft. Read on to learn more about his plans for NYC.

All candidates answered a quick series of questions about major NYC housing issues before going into detail about their own proposals. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

 You want to build one million units over 10 years through increasing allowable density, targeting industrial areas, and redeveloping public buildings. You propose building 70,000 units per year, when in 2023 year, NYC built less than 30,000, per a city report. What’s your plan to incentivize this growth?

Part of this has to do with vision and leadership. We used to build close to 70,000 units in this city back in the 1920s and the 1930s. We were serious about development because we understood that the city needed to grow. We understood that the more housing we provided, the more affordable it would be for everyone. 

I just do not accept that we can't do that again—that we have to be out-built by Jersey City and by Tokyo. This is New York City. We can do it here. And that is why I have centered my campaign on Rebuild NYC, because I believe that we can do big things again. Not only can we do it, but we must do it. 

How we get there is important. I would like to have more rooms in City Hall solely focused on this—a CompStat-like approach. [Myrie is referencing the NYC Police Department’s public-facing repository of crime data, CompStat 2.0.] How many units did we build? How many units have we preserved? How many tenants are we protecting? [I would use] an interagency approach to ensure that every agency with jurisdiction is singing from the same sheet of music on how we can accomplish this level of building. 

We need to do some hiring. We have some personnel issues at the Housing Preservation & Development Department, the Department of Buildings, the Department of City Planning, and all of those agencies are going to be required for us to process applications and get through particular rezonings. We got to have the technical know-how in order to do it. 

Lastly, because we are centering this in our campaign, there's going to be a political mandate to get this done. I’m under no illusions that this is going to be easy or that it will not be met by opposition from some New Yorkers. But once elected, I will be able to say that I was put into City Hall in order to build more housing, to protect and preserve housing, and this is my mandate. I plan to bring that mandate throughout the entire city.

Many New Yorkers criticize the affordable housing lottery for targeting renters who make six figures. How would you ensure new development targets low- and moderate-income renters?

Out of the mandate for one million homes—considering the production, preservation, and protection—we think close to half of that is going to be affordable for New Yorkers. We have, of course, mandatory inclusionary housing here in the city where our new developments will be subject to that and will be providing that level of affordability. 

But I also think we have to expand our right to counsel program, that right now allows for individuals facing eviction to have legal counsel in court. That has been a great initiative that has not been funded, fully, by this administration. I'd like to do that. 

I think it's important that we also expand that to homeowners who may be facing foreclosure or deed theft to ensure that they do have that protection. And as we were discussing earlier, [we need to be] building housing of all types, including some of our smaller buildings that I think could provide some levels of affordability that we might not have seen yet.

How would you secure the funding to expand NYC’s right to counsel to deed theft victims and how would you ensure it serves everyone who needs it?

I think we are going to have to work very closely with our colleagues in Albany. I have the honor of serving in the state legislature right now, and one of the things that we have been advocating for is the Housing Access Voucher Program. That would provide more resources to have voucher access and allow for people who are lower income or on the brink of homelessness to get an opportunity to find a home. 

This type of advocacy is going to be needed from City Hall in order for us to expand our right to counsel program. In the midst of federal administration that appears hostile to anything that is going to benefit New York City, that has already proposed eliminating half of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is looking to cut Section 8 rental assistance pretty drastically, and of course, is doing major cuts in the Medicaid context—it is going to be even more important that we work closely with Albany in order to get the resources that we need, not just for expansion, but for maintaining of what we already have.

A lot of deed theft legislation focuses on educating owners who might be at risk of these scams. Your policy proposal mentions targeting enforcement of bad actors. Tell us more about your plans to crack down on deed theft on the enforcement side.

I wrote the law that made deed theft a crime in Albany. Why I did that was that I heard from too many of my constituents who, themselves, had been victims and who had no legal recourse. Part of what I'd like to do in City Hall is to ensure that our city sheriff, our local district attorneys and our Department of Finance are working in tandem to identify properties that may be susceptible to this type of scam. 

What we have seen are the bad actors go through the rolls of individuals that are behind on taxes or water bills, and then they come offering "assistance," that end up being massive deceptions to get people to turn over their property. I'd like to be proactive from City Hall in ensuring that we are reaching out to these homeowners and warning them about these potential bad actors. 

On the enforcement side, [I would ensure] that our sheriff's office is also being made aware of these potential victims of deed theft so they can stand at the ready. This is in our criminal statutes now, so working with our borough district attorneys is going to be paramount as well. I'd be looking forward to partnering with them to ensure that anytime we had suspicions of an alleged deed theft, we were doing referrals to them.

What are your plans to expand down payment assistance? The existing downpayment assistance program has only served around 1,000 New Yorkers in the last decade. What are the hopes in terms of how many New Yorkers you could serve?

Part of this is going to have to be an examination of our Housing Development Corporation's (HDC) ability to extend that type of assistance. I do think that it has been an underutilized tool for us. I say this from personal experience. I hope to be a first-time home buyer with my wife in the near future. We, as well as many other New Yorkers, need help to get that accomplished. I would love to see a serious expansion of that, but the details, we’d have to wait and see to discuss with HDC.

Your policy book that mentions the Office of the Homeowner Advocate and expanding funding for that office. What do you envision it will look like under your reign as mayor?

The foreclosure docket, particularly in Brooklyn and Queens, post-2008 has remained incredibly active. Many of those homeowners are going into foreclosure proceedings without counsel, without assistance, without any guidance. I hope that our Office of Homeowner Advocate would be more proactive, in not only educating our homeowners on what assistance is available to them, but also being able to connect them to counsel. My hope is that it would be our city's right to counsel program, but there are other legal service providers that could help them throughout this process, and hopefully help them keep their homes. 

There have been instances where people just need a little bit of assistance to pay up on bills or taxes that are owed. My hope is that, in conjunction with Albany, and perhaps under a new federal administration, that we'd be able to have a fund to help with this type of assistance, for homeowners who just need a bridge to get up to speed on payment, in order for them not to be in foreclosure.

Is there anything else you’d like to add about your housing policy positions?

We have to have a plan that meets the moment. We need solutions on housing that match the scale of the problem that we face. There are going to be a lot of naysayers that say “we can't get this done.” 

But I think that New Yorkers, fundamentally, are big thinkers. We want to see big plans that are going to actually help us bring the cost of housing down, help mitigate out-migration, and ensure that—no matter who you are or where you come from—that you can come to this city, you can afford to stay here, and then you can take advantage of the opportunity capital of the world.

Editor’s Note: Brick Underground is interviewing candidates for the 2025 New York City mayoral election. If you’re a candidate and you’d like to talk to us, please get in touch.

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