ABC
By: Isabel Melendez-Rivera, published on syracuse.com 4/11/26.
A new approach to tackling New York State’s housing crisis aims to change the required number of staircases in apartment buildings.
Currently, state building code requires any apartment building three stories or taller to have at least two exits, or staircases. The longstanding code was put into place so that, during a fire, people have more than one way out and firefighters have more than one way in.
Single-stair buildings are common in many parts of the world, including in cities in Asia and Europe, because they allow for more units in a building. Lawmakers across the United States are taking notice, and “single-stair reform” is taking root nationwide. Amending the state code would allow housing developments of at least three stories and up to six stories to be built with a single staircase.
Eliminating the two-staircase requirement would lower construction costs and allow more units in a single building. Together, these changes could make housing more affordable, developers and stakeholders said. But fire experts are concerned that fire safety is being compromised.
New York Sen. Rachel May first proposed the change in 2023. Her team worked mostly with the Center for Building, a New York City-based nonprofit that has been behind single-stair reforms in other states.
Last year, she helped pass a bill that allowed New York to study the issue.
But changing the code could take years — a frustrating timeline for lawmakers pushing for any help they can get to encourage more construction of new, dense housing in a state that’s desperate for it, May said.
“We’re stuck in a long process, because the committees that need to update the fire codes don’t meet very often, and they have a queue of issues that they’re working on, and they’re just saying it maybe a few more years before they make the decision about this, which is kind of frustrating,” she said.
One of May’s concerns is how conservative fire code organizations might be in their assessment. Most firefighters are wary of the change. They’ve long trained people to identify two exits for any building, and they fear this could make it tougher to evacuate a building or fight fires.
The current fire codes didn’t come from thin air— they were created after tragic fires, experts said.
“They tend to be extremely conservative, which makes sense, like they want to be protecting people from fire,” May said. “But, the more we make it possible to build new housing, the more we shift toward people living in new housing, which is typically way safer than older structures are.”
Lowering cost, increasing “choice”
In 2024, the U.S. Census Bureau found that nearly four in 10 New York households were spending 30% of their income on housing.
“The housing shortage is an issue all across the state, and multifamily housing is the best way to address it,” May said.
In Onondaga County, the issue isn’t so much finding housing as finding housing residents can afford, said Michael Collins, commissioner of neighborhoods and business development for the city of Syracuse. In recent years, Syracuse has offered incentives to developers to build more affordable housing.
“We’re looking at every quadrant of the city being able to make sure that there are affordable housing options,” he said. “If you can’t afford housing, you’re in a crisis without a doubt.”
In the past, the city has also eased local zoning codes to incentivize development and construction. Changes like allowing the construction of row housing, and now May’s single-stair proposal, are part of a progressive and proactive effort to improve housing that ultimately brings more choice for residents, Collins said.
“Anything that allows for more flexibility in how a building is used is generally speaking, going to be more beneficial for the community in which that building exists,” he said.
Support from developers and contractors
Changing this part of the building code would lower the cost, time, and complexity of construction, which could motivate developers in the area to take on more affordable housing projects, according to Brian Sampson, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors Empire State Chapter.
“Anything that you can do to reduce the cost and streamline efficiency and the quickness from plan to development to build affordable and market rate housing should absolutely be looked at and supported,” he said.
New York already has developers and investors. Easing this part of the building codes would add an incentive, Sampson said. For downtown Syracuse, developers could become interested in turning underutilized non-housing sites into housing, according to Collins and Sampson.
“Some buildings within the existing stock become more attractive for redevelopment” Collins said. “If there are ways to make them more profitable, you could see them becoming redevelopment targets.”
Already, sites like the original East Genesee Boys’ Club building and a hotel on Fayette Street are being turned into housing, Collins said. Changing the codes to require only one staircase would make those projects faster and cheaper, which, in turn, can keep rents lower.
Is it safe?
While developers like Sampson describe the reform as a “win-win,” some fire experts aren’t convinced.
About a month ago, Syracuse’s deputy chief of fire prevention, George Cowburn, learned through an email about the proposal, which could change how firefighters perform rescues.
The email was sent by a peer at a code-enforcing agency and it explained May’s single-stair proposal. It took him by surprise, Cowburn said.
For years, firefighters have taught people to identify at least two ways out of every room, part of a broader program known as E.D.I.T.H. (Exit Drills in the Home), Cowburn said.
A long-standing tactic for firefighters has been using one stairwell to evacuate people and the other to go up with hoses, personnel and equipment, Cowburn said. A single staircase could lead to colliding traffic with firefighters going up and residents going down.
In a fatal fire like the one at Nob Hill last month, having a single staircase to evacuate residents and respond to the fire could have resulted in more injury and chaos, Cowburn said. Even though the reform would only apply to smaller buildings, fire experts will still be concerned.
“This is pretty big,” he said. “This doesn’t just require firefighters to think differently about how they attack or what their tactics are at a fire, right? This also involves re-educating the public, which we’ve been doing for decades.”
Across New York state, fire departments vary in personnel and equipment, leading to differences in rescue efficiency from one city to another. If the codes were changed, fire departments across the state would feel its effects differently, Cowburn said. Some departments might have a harder time adapting to rescues from a single-stairway apartment building.
Still, firefighters will need to comply with what the state decides.
“If New York state says, ‘Hey, you can do this now,’ we’re going to have to adapt, and we will,” he said. “We won’t like it necessarily, but we’ll find a way to adapt and create the best possible outcome for the people living in these buildings.”
Even though Cowburn and other experts question the safety of single-stair apartment buildings, he said he recognizes the desperate need for better housing.
“I understand the concept and why we want to look at this from a neighborhood and housing development standpoint,” he said. “But you simply can’t make the case that it would it’s equally as safe.”