ANHD’s Equitable Development Data Explorer Training Modules

Until recently, land use and zoning decisions in New York City were not required to consider race or the racial impacts of their actions in any manner. This glaring omission has made it easier to advance inequitable land use proposals, like rezonings, that have increased the displacement risk of existing residents and small businesses in communities of color.

Thanks to the work of the Racial Impact Study Coalition, or RISC, there are now publicly available data tools and required Racial Equity Reports that ensure that land use actions finally take race, displacement, and neighborhood conditions into account.

ANHD is excited to share information about these tools and to announce the release of new video trainings on how to use the Equitable Development Data Explorer and Displacement Risk map to give New Yorkers the tools they need to advocate for community priorities, create proactive plans, and push back on inequitable proposals.

Through the Equitable Development Data Explorer (EDDE) and Displacement Risk Index and map, community and housing data by race are now collected in one publicly available location for residents, city officials, and developers to understand the existing context of their communities.

In addition, Racial Equity Reports are now a required part of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). These reports compile data from the EDDE into Community Profiles and require anyone submitting a land use proposal to speak to how their development affirmatively furthers fair housing within that area (for example, sharing the projected rents and explicitly identifying who in the area could afford them).

Equitable Development Data Explorer (EDDE)

History of RISC, Local Law 78, and the EDDE

The EDDE, Displacement Risk map, and Racial Equity Reports are products of the work done by RISC and supportive elected officials. Local housing organizers and advocacy groups formed RISC in response to multiple communities of color organizing against inequitable rezonings that increased displacement risk while failing to serve community needs.

Beyond the growing threat of displacement, RISC saw a gap in data accessibility that made the fight for equitable development and land use processes more difficult. Neighborhood-level data was challenging to find and community voices were often seen as anecdotal. Organizers were forced to spend time finding quantitative information to validate their claims.

RISC worked with NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams to propose legislation that would address these overlapping issues of race-negligent rezonings, displacement, and affordable housing that truly serves existing needs. RISC partnered with housing research staff from the City and City Council’s land use team to develop the legislation further and it was passed as Local Law 78 in 2021.

The EDDE, displacement risk index, and Racial Equity Reports represent a collective effort to put residents of color at the center of the conversation when considering land use actions and to prevent displacement caused by rezonings. The EDDE collects in one easily accessible place a variety of community and housing data broken down by race. The displacement risk index and map use a formula that takes race, income, current housing information, and market conditions to measure the risk of displacement by neighborhood when compared to the city as a whole.

The Racial Equity Reports, the core of RISC’s demands, are now a required part of the ULURP process with applicants having to explain how their land use proposals meet local needs and goals across racial demographics. The reports require proposals to include projected rents of apartments and who would be able to access them - to make development projects more transparent as early as possible for residents to understand.

Pushing Forward Our Land Use Justice Work

With the introduction of the EDDE, Displacement Risk map, and Racial Equity Reports, land use actions within the city are better informed by the actual conditions of communities of color.

ANHD hopes our video training modules make these tools more accessible and understandable for residents to proactively advocate for their community needs or effectively push back on inequitable proposals.

ANHD continues to support the work of community groups and City Council members who are working to develop land use principles for their districts. We hope the EDDE and ANHD’s trainings add to the resources available for those groups as they identify the existing conditions that set the groundwork for their principles.

These tools support community members to describe and address their needs and empower them to take proactive action and make race impossible to avoid in the conversation of equitable development. We aimed to make these trainings accessible without having prior land use knowledge. We hope that residents can understand more about their neighborhoods, use that knowledge to communicate with their elected officials about their local needs, respond to land use proposals, and envision the types of development and plans that best serve them.

ANHD’s Equitable Development Data Explorer Training Modules

ANHD’s video modules and activities on how to use the City’s Equitable Development Data Explorer (EDDE) will help New Yorkers understand and advocate for their community needs when it comes to affordable housing, capital investment, and land use.

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