Opinion Piece: How New York City Can Build for Its Missing Middle - Not Just the Rich, Not Just the Subsidized, But Everyone
- Harvard Real Estate Review
- 28 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Author: Mohammad Muhyi Shwiqi (MRE ‘25)
Editor: Henry Black (MUP '26)
In a city where luxury towers cast shadows over rent-burdened neighborhoods, New York’s greatest vulnerability is not its skyline; it is the erosion of its middle-income housing. This “missing middle” includes housing for teachers, nurses, city workers, entrepreneurs, and young families earning too much for subsidized housing yet not enough for market-rate rents. These are the very people who keep the city running, but too many are being pushed out of their homes.
This is not just a housing crisis; it’s a planning and policy issue with measurable costs. According to the Fiscal Policy Institute, working- and middle-class New Yorkers have been leaving at roughly four times the rate of the wealthiest 1%. Meanwhile, both luxury and deeply subsidized populations either held steady or grew. If this trend continues, we risk becoming a two-tiered city, with one for the wealthy and another for those receiving subsidies, leaving little room for anyone else.
If New York wants to remain a resilient, competitive, and livable city, it must act now. In my opinion, the solution lies in building attainable housing, homes that middle-income New Yorkers earning roughly $70,000 to $160,000 annually can afford without subsidies or lotteries.
The Problem: Policy Blind Spots
Luxury towers keep rising. Subsidized units receive substantial public support. But middle-income New Yorkers, those earning too much to qualify for aid and too little to afford market rents, are left behind. They don’t benefit from tax credits, vouchers, or lotteries, and higher earners on the open market often outbid them.
Take a public school teacher earning $85,000 and a sanitation worker earning $72,000, for example. Their combined income of $157,000 won’t secure them a two-bedroom in Brooklyn without spending 40–50% of their income on rent. This is unsustainable.
The missing middle isn’t a niche group. They are the backbone of New York’s public services, economy, and culture, and they are slipping away.
A Better Direction: Attainable Housing for the Backbone of New York City
To address this imbalance, New York must prioritize middle-income housing as a distinct and urgent need. Here's how:
Unlock Medium-density Opportunities near Transit
Legalize housing types like duplexes, six-flats, courtyard buildings, and mid-rises that outdated zoning laws have excluded. Target upzoning near subways and major transit corridors. By way of example, in 2016 Auckland’s Unitary Plan upzoned approximately 75% of residential land, triggering a surge in medium-density development. By 2022, rents were 28% lower than they would have been otherwise, despite ongoing population growth.
Repurpose Public Land for the Middle
Instead of auctioning city-owned land to the highest bidder, New York should issue Request for Proposals that require a meaningful share of units to target middle-income households. Sites can be leased, not sold, under long-term affordability covenants.
Support Community-Based Developers
Mid-sized, mission-aligned builders often understand their neighborhoods but lack capital and clarity in the permitting process. Fast-track approvals, reduced fees, and mezzanine financing tools for developers who commit to moderate pricing that can enable efficient housing delivery at the scale needed. Prefabricated construction should also be promoted to control costs and speed delivery.
Engage Anchor Institutions
Hospitals, universities, transit authorities, and municipal employers should be invited to co-develop staff housing or contribute to the development of middle-income units near their employment centers. Their retention depends on housing stability.
Track and Target the Middle
The city should formally define “attainable” housing bands and report annually on production. Metrics drive accountability. If it’s not measured, it’s not managed.
The Path Forward
The goal is not to compete with affordable housing but to complement it. We must design a city that also welcomes its workers, those who teach, heal, clean, and build. A more inclusive housing policy recognizes that cities thrive when the middle can live near where they work.
A successful precedent is Toronto, which recently launched its “Housing Now” initiative to deliver mixed-income, transit-oriented housing on public land, with a large share dedicated to moderate-income earners (City of Toronto, 2023). New York must think similarly and act faster.
Conclusion: Build for the People Who Keep New York City Alive
New York City cannot sustain itself without the very people who power its schools, hospitals, subways, and streets. We need a new strategy, one that recognizes the social and economic necessity of the missing middle.
Let’s stop building for just the wealthy and those who are subsidized. Let’s build for everyone else, too.
Mohammad Muhyi Shwiqi (MRE ’25) examines the intersection of housing, technology, and policy to support more equitable and enduring cities. His work focuses on inclusive housing solutions, urban revitalization, and building communities that serve both people and place.
Henry Black (MUP ’26) is the managing director of the Harvard Real Estate Review. With a multidisciplinary academic and professional background reflecting an understanding of both the asset and space markets, he brings curiosity and a depth of knowledge to real estate development and finance.
Sources
City of Toronto (2020) Housing Now. Available at: https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/community-partners/housing-partners/housing-initiatives/housing-now/ (Accessed: 30 July 2025).
Fiscal Policy Institute (2024) New families with young children in search of housing drive state population trends. Available at: https://fiscalpolicy.org/new-families-with-young-children-in-search-of-housing-drive-state-population#:~:text=Part%20II%3A%20Social%20Characteristics,-June%203%2C%202024&text=Households%20with%20young%20children%20are,twice%20the%20share%20before%20Covid (Accessed: 30 July 2025).
Economic Policy Centre, University of Auckland (2023) [Can Zoning Reform Reduce Housing Costs? Evidence from Rents in Auckland. Available at: https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/business/about/our-research/research-institutes-and-centres/Economic-Policy-Centre--EPC-/WP016.pdf (Accessed: 30 July 2025).