Reforming Housing Law in New York State
We are legislating ourselves into loneliness and ill health.
Across New York State, zoning laws make it illegal for people to live near those who matter to them. This harms public health, frays the social fabric, and erodes civic life. The Social Infrastructure Project exists to change that.
Learn MoreOur Foundation
Social infrastructure refers to the places that bring people together. Where it's good, we thrive. Where it's poor or absent, we founder.
The Case for Reform
The Social Infrastructure Project pursues reform because many existing zoning and housing regimes conflict with New York's constitutional commitments to equality, public health, and freedom of association—and because the outcomes of these rules undermine individual liberties and social cohesion.
State government exists in part to safeguard the conditions under which a democratic society can function: access to housing, protection from discrimination, and environments that support health, participation, and civic life.
When legal frameworks systematically produce isolation, exclusion, and inequity—and exacerbate the housing affordability crisis—the State has both the authority and the responsibility to act.
Why New York
New York has both the urgency and the tools to lead. The state's commitments to civil rights, public health, and housing access provide a strong foundation for reform—and success here can serve as a model for the nation.
But New York is also in the midst of a housing emergency: constrained supply plus a lack of affordability. Large-lot minimums, single-family mandates, and density caps drive up costs and lock families out of whole communities—worsening the very exclusion the law should prevent.
Fifty years of case law confirms that local zoning power has limits. Those doctrines have been allowed to atrophy; it's time to enforce them.
Read the Legal Case