New York’s affordable housing crisis continues to intensify, with new data showing a massive shortfall in rental units affordable to the state’s lowest-income residents. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s The Gap report, New York has a deficit of more than 631,000 affordable and available homes for extremely low-income renters.
Developers say long approval and funding processes delay construction, even as demand surges. Gov. Kathy Hochul has pledged $25 billion over five years to build and preserve housing, including $1 billion announced this summer for nearly 3,000 new units.
Widening gap between income and rent
The report defines “extremely low income” (ELI) households as those earning at or below 30% of the area median income. Across New York, nearly 982,000 renter households fall into this category — but only 350,772 rental homes are both affordable and available to them. That leaves roughly 36 affordable units for every 100 ELI renters, one of the worst ratios in the country.
Even when expanding the analysis to households earning up to 50% of area median income, the deficit remains severe — about 703,000 units short statewide.
Urban and Upstate regions face similar pressures
In the New York City metro area, which includes Newark and Jersey City, the shortage is most acute, with 626,852 fewer affordable homes than needed for ELI renters. But the problem extends upstate as well. In the Buffalo-Cheektowaga metro area, the shortfall reaches 31,657 units, leaving just 34 affordable homes per 100 renters at the lowest income levels.
While affordability gaps are most visible downstate, smaller metros and rural areas are increasingly strained as rents rise faster than wages and housing supply lags behind demand.
Burdened renters statewide
The majority of extremely low-income renters in New York are cost burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. The data shows 86% of these households fall into that category, and 74% are severely cost burdened, devoting over half their income to rent and utilities.
Even moderate-income renters are feeling the squeeze. Among those earning 51% to 80% of the area median income, nearly half are cost burdened.
Structural shortage, not temporary crisis
The data underscores what housing advocates have been warning for years: New York’s affordability gap is structural, not cyclical. Despite recent state efforts to expand tenant protections, offer tax incentives for builders, and fund new affordable housing construction, the underlying mismatch between supply and need remains severe.
Policy experts warn that without large-scale investment in deeply affordable housing — units reserved for the lowest income tiers — and stronger protections against displacement, the state’s housing inequity will persist.
The bottom line
New York’s affordable housing shortage is not limited to New York City or a handful of urban centers. It is a statewide problem that affects renters at every income level, but especially those at the bottom of the economic ladder. With only 36 affordable homes for every 100 extremely low-income renters, the crisis continues to define life for nearly a million New Yorkers struggling to keep a roof over their heads.