
As New York grapples with a severe housing shortage, the city's houseboat communities face an uncertain future, with eviction notices displacing residents from their aquatic homes. Barry Green, a retiree whose fixed income couldn't compete with the city's rising apartment rents, found solace in the Kings Plaza marina for over a decade. But now, Green and his neighbors have been told to leave, a casualty of a redevelopment plan undertaken by the marina's commercial owners. “They own the dock. We own the boats. It’s, ‘Pick up your boat and go someplace else,’” Green told Gothamist.
The plight of these houseboat residents isn't an isolated issue. It comes at a time when the city itself is embarking on a historic overhaul of its zoning laws, aimed at tackling the broader housing crisis on land. This overhaul, known as "City of Yes," hopes to diversify housing solutions throughout the boroughs. According to The New York Times, the plan paves the way for more modest real estate developments and introduces flexibility for homeowners to add rental units. However, even as these changes on land promise some relief, for those like Green and his maritime neighbors, the waterways are becoming less of a refuge.
The dwindling number of marinas that allow "liveaboards" and the prohibitive costs of those that do make the situation grim for seafaring New Yorkers. Linda White, a former resident of the Kings Plaza marina, struggles to find a new docking spot for her 52-foot barge. “People are looking for another marina and it's hard to find one,” White explained to Gothamist. This mirrors the broader challenge on land where affordable housing units are scarce and demand far outstrips supply.
In the face of these challenges, the "City of Yes" initiative signals a shift in policy, targeting "the missing middle" by promoting smaller-scale but denser residential blocks. The ambition is to close the housing gap through revised zoning measures and state-sponsored tax incentives, and is backed by an additional $5 billion from the city and state, as The New York Times reports. Yet while these efforts look to expand housing on land, those on water remain adrift in an increasingly inhospitable urban landscape, their affordable and alternative lifestyle at risk of being washed away by the tides of change.