Stairway to housing

By Raizel Febles, Rutgers University’s 2024-2025 Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice Fellow

Cutting the cost of construction can cut the cost of owning or renting, making homes more affordable. What difference can the construction of a single staircase make? Texas and New York offer two examples of implementing single-stair reform.

On July 11, 2026, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act officially became law following bipartisan majorities from both chambers of Congress. It’s a big win for housing advocates, congressional leaders and Americans everywhere hoping for real solutions to the nation’s housing shortage.

The most comprehensive housing legislation passed by Congress in three decades combined two bills:

• Housing for the 21st Century Act from the U.S. House of Representatives
• Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act from the Senate

While much of the conversation has focused on manufactured housing and limits on institutional investor purchases of single-family homes, another provision deserves a closer look: the potential for single-stair multifamily buildings to expand affordable housing options.

Section 102 of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act:

• Requires the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to develop federal guidelines for apartment buildings that have a single staircase and are at least three stories tall.
• Allows HUD to provide competitive grants for pilot projects (authorized for seven years) to test whether the designs of these apartment buildings are safe, practical and a good fit for local housing needs.

But how much difference does one staircase really make?

According to the American Planning Association, it costs around $200,000 to construct a second staircase for mid-rise apartments. Cutting the cost of construction would inevitably cut the cost of owning or renting the apartment. Single-stair multifamily buildings not only cost less, but also allow for apartments to have windows on more than just one side, permitting better ventilation, more sunlight and a healthier way of life for residents.

New York 

More than 100 years ago, New York City became the birthplace of the ban on single-stair buildings. Laws requiring two staircases in apartment buildings taller than three stories were enacted after multiple deadly fires sparked a fear that single-stair buildings would lead to even more deaths and accidents in apartment fires. However, over the past decade, Pew examined 468 fire-related deaths that occurred between 2012 and 2024 in New York City apartment buildings and only three of them took place in single-stairway buildings, putting to rest the assumptions about the safety of these buildings. Currently in New York, rent burden and overcrowding runs rampant, especially as the city continues to have a limited housing inventory for their growing population.  Plus, strict zoning regulations make it difficult for affordable housing solutions to be added.

But what could assist in the solution to rent burden and overcrowding in New York? 

One potential answer lies in Senate Bill S10501.

Currently, New York State building codes require two stairways in residential buildings above three stories, which increases construction cost, limits building apartments on small or irregular lots and reduces the number of building types that can be built. Senate Bill S10501 hopes to address the housing shortage by updating the fire safety and building code standards for single-stairway buildings up to six stories in cities with a population of 1 million or more.

The bill calls for single-stairway buildings to comply with the following:

• An automatic sprinkler system throughout the building.
• A structure built with material that can resist fire for up to two hours.
• The staircase must be ventilated or smokeproof.
• Easy access to units for first responders — either through panels or balconies, and appropriate window sizes.
• No more than four units per floor.

Single-stair multifamily buildings would allow New York’s housing stock to become more affordable by cutting construction costs, enabling more family-size units, increasing density and improving quality of life. If enacted and implemented, the bill would allow for fire standards that could have a hugely positive impact on housing supply and affordability for generations to come.

Texas

Nationally, there are roughly 35 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households. In Texas, that figure is only 25 homes for every 100 extremely low-income households. States like Texas do not have adequate housing supply because of lack of investment in low-income housing. New construction simply cannot be supported by the amount of rent that low-income households can afford. States in the same situation as Texas need to embrace solutions such as investing in public housing or creating pathways for new types of housing to be built. 

Much like New York’s bill, Texas Senate Bill 2835 https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/analysis/pdf/SB02835I.pdfseeks to address some of these barriers, with a few key differences:

• Texas’ bill applies to any municipality in the state, regardless of population or size.
• It provides significantly more technical restrictions that New York leaves to future regulations.
• Texas allows cities to choose whether they want to implement the bill, whereas New York prohibits cities from additional requirements that can ban compliant single-stair buildings.
• Texas’ version includes a much more comprehensive safety measure in their statutory text.

The means to affordable housing approaches taken by New York and Texas illustrate two different pathways for implementing single-stair reform. As the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act starts implementation, other states may look to these distinct models as they consider ways to increase housing supply while maintaining strong safety standards.