The Real Cost of Living in New York: Rethinking Affordability Event Recap

NEW YORK, N.Y.—May 19, 2026— Sixty-two percent of New Yorkers cannot afford to live in this city with dignity. That number, drawn from the city's first True Cost of Living Measure, set the tone for Rethinking Affordability: Economic Justice, Work, and the Future of Opportunity, a half-day symposium hosted by Women Creating Change (WCC) in partnership with Women.NYC, Barnard College, and JPMorganChase at The Ethel S. LeFrak '41 and Samuel J. LeFrak Theatre, Barnard College.

The event did not treat affordability as a single-issue problem. It examined how housing, caregiving, wages, workforce development, and access to capital overlap to determine who can remain in New York and who is forced out. It built on findings from WCC's inaugural State of NYC Women Conference held in October 2025, and it pushed beyond diagnosis toward the harder question: what structural change actually looks like.

WCC President and CEO Sharon Sewell-Fairman opened the day with a personal reflection on family members who left New York City because they could no longer afford to stay. She challenged every attendee to leave with one clear action they would take to advocate for a more affordable city. ShehilaRae Stephens, Executive Vice President of Equity and Community Impact at the NYC Economic Development Corporation, and Dr. Akilah Rosado, Barnard College's Vice President for Inclusion and Belonging, joined Sewell-Fairman in opening remarks. WCC Board Member Lori Rodney, Head of Global Communications at Shutterstock, guided the program throughout the day.

Dr. Rosado drew a sharp distinction between revisiting and rethinking, pushing the room past policy mechanics toward deeper questions of design and inclusion.

"Affordability is not a policy problem. It's a belonging problem. Policy can lower a number. Only belonging asks who gets to stay and design systems accordingly," said Dr. Akilah Rosado, Vice President for Inclusion and Belonging, Barnard College.

Barnard junior Terrah Garner grounded those ideas in lived experience. A first-generation college student and Laidlaw Scholar studying sociology and human rights, Garner described navigating financial aid systems with no roadmap, sharing her appeal letter online, reaching over a million students, and ultimately founding an initiative helping young people navigate college readiness and financial literacy. She currently serves as Director of Financial Education at College for All, reaching over 15,000 students worldwide.

"Civic action is not just about individual effort, but about what becomes possible when we come together and collectively create a world better than the one that we inherited," said Terrah Garner, Barnard junior and Laidlaw Scholar. "Talent is everywhere. Access is not."

The first panel, moderated by Beverly Cooper Neufeld of PowHer New York, brought together Rachel Fee (Executive Director, New York Housing Conference), Sideya Sherman (Director of the Department of City Planning and Chair of the City Planning Commission), Dr. Lisa Scott-McKenzie (Commissioner, NYC Department for the Aging), and Myung J. Lee (Chief Strategy Officer, Living Cities).

The conversation made one thing clear: affordability breaks down across every stage of life, and the systems meant to help are often working against the people inside them. New York City has a 1.4% vacancy rate and has not built housing at a pace that matches population growth. One-third of all eviction filings in the city occur in affordable housing, meaning households that qualified and entered the system are still falling behind. Sherman outlined the administration's approach to expanding supply through zoning tools like mandatory inclusionary housing and new fast-track approval processes for affordable development.

Dr. Scott-McKenzie drew attention to older New Yorkers who fear aging into poverty and called for paid caregiver leave, flexible work options, and automatic enrollment in city benefits. Lee traced the history of the credit scoring system, noting that women could not hold credit cards in their own name until 1974, and highlighted Grameen America as a model for community-based lending. That organization has invested over $4 billion in more than 190,000 low-income women entrepreneurs with a 98.8% repayment rate.

The second conversation, moderated by Dr. Elizabeth Ananat, featured Council Members Virginia Maloney and Julie Won. Both brought private sector backgrounds in technology, which shaped a discussion less about what policies exist and more about how they actually reach people.

Council Member Maloney identified benefit cliffs as a persistent design flaw. An extra shift can disqualify a household from rental assistance and create a disincentive to earn more. She urged attendees to start engaging with AI tools now, noting that women historically adopt new technology more slowly and risk being left behind as industries transform. Council Member Won championed universal childcare and called for care systems that reflect a 24-hour city, not a 9-to-5 one. She emphasized that care extends across the lifespan, from children to aging parents, and that the women performing this work, including immigrant women and home care workers, must be fairly compensated.

The final panel, moderated by Lori Rodney, brought together Heather C. Mulligan (President and CEO, Business Council of New York State), Wendy M. Star (Senior Vice President, Equity and Community Impact, NYC EDC), Council Member Shanel Thomas-Henry (District 21), and Rafia Zahir-Uddin (Vice President and Program Officer, Corporate Responsibility, JPMorganChase).

The conversation shifted to what it takes to connect New Yorkers to quality jobs and economic opportunity at scale. Star called for training tied to real employer demand and community need, and highlighted worker-owned cooperatives as a model worth expanding. Council Member Thomas-Henry, drawing from her marketing background, argued that city programs and policies should be rolled out like marketing campaigns so the people who need services actually know they exist. She raised concerns about barriers in the MWBE certification process, including the federal rollback of Disadvantaged Business Enterprise certifications, and called for closing loopholes that allow prime contractors to bypass participation goals.

Mulligan shared breaking news during the panel: the governor had announced a budget deal that includes a pathway to universal childcare. While details were not yet finalized, the announcement underscored the timeliness of the day's conversations. She also noted that women and minority-owned businesses now account for half of all new businesses created in New York and outperform non-MWBE businesses by a factor of two.

Zahir-Uddin described JPMorganChase's approach to community-led partnerships, free financial education workshops, and coaching for early-stage entrepreneurs through community branch centers in Harlem, Bed-Stuy, and the Bronx. Financial health, she emphasized, is essential infrastructure for economic mobility, and effective partnerships must be community-led, employer-informed, and accountable.

Throughout the day, panelists responded to Sewell-Fairman's challenge with specific actions for the room. Rachel Fee urged attendees to sign on to New Destiny's letter pressing the governor and state legislature to fund 5,500 emergency housing vouchers withdrawn by the federal government. Dr. Scott-McKenzie pointed to Intro 248, which would create automatic enrollment for city benefits like Fair Fares and SNAP. Sherman encouraged attendees to stay civically engaged, attend local hearings, and share information about available city resources with neighbors and family. Council Member Won called for universal childcare, and Star urged the room to support hiring of people with disabilities through the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities.

The affordability conversation does not end here. On Wednesday, June 10, WCC will host New York's Agenda for Women, a virtual conversation with Commissioner Denise Miranda of the NYS Division of Human Rights. On Thursday, June 18, WCC will convene Health Across a Lifetime at Barnard College. Registration for both events is available at wccny.org/events.

The Rethinking Affordability symposium was supported by Women.NYC, Barnard College, and JPMorganChase.