New NYC Affordable Housing Must Come With Internet Service, City Says

New York City is making broadband access a necessary component of new affordable-housing projects that use city funds. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development adopted a new set of Design Guidelines meant to “ensure newly constructed buildings promote equity, health, and sustainability.” According to the new guidelines, whenever feasible, all new affordable housing that uses city funds must be wired for high-speed internet and provide it to all tenants at no cost to them. Every newly constructed unit must have wireless internet service and a wired connection point in every living room, with secure access and a unique profile for every resident, with a “preferred system capacity of 100 Megabits per second” supporting “four simultaneous moderate users or devices,” according to the guidelines. The guidelines, developed in partnership with both the city’s Task Force on Racial Inclusion & Equity and the affordable-housing development industry, are intended to begin treating broadband access as a standard utility.