New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is fighting to rezone SoHo, as The Gothamist reported in October 2020.
The proposal, according to the NYC Department of City Planning, would add 3,200 apartments to the neighborhood, 800 of which would be priced below market rate.
Bringing affordable housing to the wealthy neighborhood is a pivot from NYC's typical strategy of rezoning lower-income neighborhoods, according to The New York Times.
While many of the neighborhood's preservationists are against the rezoning plan, housing rights activists like Will Thomas — a board member of Open New York, the group that fought for affordable housing in SoHo — see it as a "historic opportunity."
"This would really change the unspoken rules around development in New York City," Thomas told The Gothamist. "Breaking down the exclusionary barriers of SoHo is a matter of racial justice, is a matter of housing justice, and especially right now during a pandemic, affordable housing is more needed than ever."