Section 02 · Blog
Housing Policy
Op-eds, analyses, and field notes from forty years inside NYC's housing system.
- May 8, 2026
New York City Must Act to Preserve Its Rent-Stabilized Housing
This is not a debate about rescuing landlords. It is about preventing avoidable deterioration in housing that remains essential to the city's economic and social fabric.
CityLimits · Op-Ed · By Michael Lappin
- July 2, 2025
The Urgency of Preserving Low- and Moderate-Income Rent Stabilized Housing
The combination of tightening rents and diminished safety net programs has precipitated a slow but accelerating deterioration of this "naturally occurring" affordable housing.
CityLimits · Op-Ed · By Michael Lappin
- April 11, 2024
What the Workout of the Signature Bank Loans Can Teach About Preserving Affordable Housing
Will the Signature buildings be viewed as a one-off, or the tip of an iceberg of a more endemic problem?
CityLimits · Op-Ed · By Michael Lappin
- April 6, 2023
Bringing Affordable Housing to NY's Market More Quickly, and Less Expensively
A detriment to building sufficient affordable housing is the long and laborious path projects must go through to reach completion.
CityLimits · Op-Ed · By Michael Lappin
- February 8, 2022
A Slow But Accelerating Crisis — Preserving Affordable Housing for Up to 1.4 Million NYers
The same combination of streamlined pension fund investments and public subsidies that worked so successfully in the 1980s and early 1990s needs to be reinvigorated to preserve the city's enormous reservoir of privately-owned affordable housing.
CityLimits · Op-Ed · By Michael D. Lappin
- June 4, 2021
Use NYC's Public Pension Funds to Supercharge Affordable Housing Production and Preservation
The next mayor and comptroller can speed New York City's recovery by working with public employee pension funds to increase investment in affordable housing, as they have in response to previous economic distress.
CityLimits · Op-Ed · By Michael D. Lappin
- June 26, 2019
To Combat Gentrification, NYC Needs Simpler & Speedier Policies
An active public program incentivizing an affordable alternative to market rate housing might create and preserve a portion of the neighborhood's housing for moderate-income households.
CityLimits · Op-Ed · By Michael Lappin
- August 22, 2018
The Lessons We Learned From Saving Parkchester
This summer marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the restoration of the largest privately owned affordable housing property in the country—the 12,271 apartments in the 171-building Parkchester complex.
CityLimits · Op-Ed · By Michael Lappin
- July 24, 2001
Preserving Affordable Multifamily Housing: Statement Before the Millennial Housing Commission
A persistent issue for our urban areas is the preservation of affordable multifamily housing. How can we create a system for reinvesting in our aging stock that both preserves it and keeps it affordable?
Millennial Housing Commission · Speeches · By Michael D. Lappin
