November 25, 2025

Shared Housing Roadmap outlines design, management, and tenant protection standards to ensure that new shared housing is safe, secure, and affordable for residents.

Legislation reintroducing shared housing to New York City will create more housing options and opportunities for single New Yorkers.

New York, NY – Today, the New York City Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) released New York City’s Shared Housing Roadmap, a report that lays out a path for reintroducing shared housing as one means of creating more housing options and opportunities for single New Yorkers. It builds on the success of the recently passed City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, which removed zoning barriers to shared housing and aligns with the newly released Where We Live NYC 2025 Fair Housing Plan.

The Roadmap accompanies Council Member Bottcher’s legislation to re-legalize shared housing and move the city closer to ensuring that every New Yorker can live in a home they can afford in a neighborhood where they can thrive, all while expanding housing opportunities in a market defined by a historically low vacancy. The legislation, which will be introduced today, will modify the Housing Maintenance Code, Building Code, and Fire Code to make new construction and conversion of nonresidential floor area to shared housing legal, as-of-right, in New York City. New shared housing will be built based on flexible new regulations which allow for a range of shared housing typologies from more traditional Single Room Occupancy to suites or dorm-style cohousing, all with new standards to ensure effective tenant protection and high quality and safety standards.

• This report is linked here.
• The legislation can be viewed here. 
  

 
 “For decades, shared housing was a critical part of our city, giving New Yorkers an affordable place to live. When we came into office, we promised to finally bring it back. With our landmark ‘City of Yes’ plan we laid the foundation for more shared housing across the city, and with this new roadmap, we are doubling down on those efforts. We’re turning the page on decades of half-measures and using every tool in our toolbox to create the housing New Yorkers need and the more affordable city they deserve,” said Mayor Adams.

“We want to build housing for all people in New York City, not just the wealthiest among us, and, under this administration, we are doing just that,” said Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development & Workforce Adolfo Carrión Jr. “For too long, this housing type, so critical for New Yorkers who are poor and working class, new immigrants and young college students, was banned in new construction. It’s time that we brought it back with the newest safety standards and best practices from around the world. This roadmap was an administration-wide effort and I am thrilled to see if published.” 

“In a moment when New Yorkers urgently need more housing options, we are taking meaningful steps to expand what is possible,” said Acting HPD Commissioner Ahmed Tigani. “The impacts of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, the advancing of HPD’s Where We Live 2025 plan, and our legislative partnership with Councilmember Bottcher all contribute to our reimagining shared housing and growing supply in a market with historically low vacancy. Our new Roadmap report examines the potential of shared housing, drawing on lessons from past models to establish stronger and more comprehensive standards than those that governed historic examples from previous eras. Our multi-year engagement and study demonstrates that by listening to communities and addressing the challenges we’ve seen, we can implement high-quality design, strong management, and meaningful tenant protections and deliver harmonious shared living. Together, these efforts move us toward a future where every New Yorker can afford to live, grow, and thrive in the city we all call home.”

“With City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, we cleared zoning barriers to shared homes—a once vital part of New York City’s housing landscape that had been off-limits for far too long. The new Shared Housing Roadmap builds on that foundation with thoughtful standards for safety, design, and management,” said DCP Director Dan Garodnick. “Together, these efforts will expand the kinds of homes New Yorkers can choose from and help ensure people who want to live here can find safe, high-quality, and affordable places to do so.”

“Shared housing was once a lifeline for generations of New Yorkers, and with this legislation, it can be a lifeline again for the countless people who today have no real housing options at all,” said Council Member Erik Bottcher. “The virtual elimination of shared housing options for single people has tracked directly with the rise in homelessness, and we cannot ignore that reality any longer. Restoring this category of housing will not only give people a safe, high quality, and affordable place to live, it will also free up larger apartments for families and others who want and need them. Every New Yorker deserves a home they can afford in a neighborhood where they can thrive, and shared housing will help us make that possible.”

Historically, shared housing models, such as boarding houses and single room occupancy (SRO) hotels, played a critical role in New York City’s housing landscape, providing affordable and secure accommodations that functioned as a safe harbor for generations of single individuals looking for independence, employment, and opportunity. Over the decades, this type of housing slowly fell out of favor due to deteriorating housing conditions, poor management, and a lack of adequate support for residents and was made functionally illegal.

The Shared Housing Roadmap builds on the lessons of the past to introduce new standards and regulations that are stronger and more comprehensive to address known challenges before they arise. The accompanying legislation will establish clear design, occupancy, and safety standards to promote harmonious living by enabling flexible layouts to meet the preferences and needs of the population the building will serve; lower ratios of kitchens and bathrooms than historically required for SROs to mitigate conflict and increase privacy; and fire safety standards that meet or exceed those of traditional apartment buildings. 

Through the Shared Housing Roadmap, HPD seeks to ensure that the reintroduction of shared housing is guided by thoughtful design and operations practices to promote tenant protections and safety. The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, passed in December 2024, eased zoning restrictions. HPD is advancing additional strategies to implement the Roadmap:

• Developing guidance to finance affordable shared housing models
• Publishing guidance to align building operations and management policies with best practices and existing tenant protections

Those interested in learning more about shared housing can read the Shared Housing Roadmap which is linked here. 

“HPD’s Shared Housing Roadmap is a major step forward in expanding the housing options New Yorkers desperately need. We are thrilled that the 5BORO Institute's Flexible Co-Living report and research helped shape this vision for safe, well-managed shared housing and smarter use of existing buildings. This is the kind of innovation the housing crisis demands,” said Grace Rauh, Executive Director of Citizens Union, which is now home to the 5BORO Institute.  

“New Yorkers’ housing needs vary widely and change over time, sometimes suddenly,” said Howard Slatkin, Executive Director of Citizens Housing and Planning Council. “But their housing options are limited, in part because of mid-20th-century regulations that have largely eliminated entire categories of housing once available for individuals. Filling this hole in our housing stock will require updating regulations. We are pleased that HPD is continuing to pursue changes to expand the variety of high-quality, well-functioning housing types New Yorkers have to choose from.”

“Shared housing is an essential and naturally affordable type of housing that New York has been missing for decades,” said Andrew Fine, Chief of Staff at Open New York. “The reintroduction of shared housing will provide a crucial low-cost option that is particularly important for young New Yorkers, older New Yorkers, and those struggling most intensely with housing costs. The City’s ban on shared housing was misguided when it passed in 1955 and was a huge contributor to our housing and homelessness crises. Open New York will be working hard in 2026 to see that it is finally lifted.”

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