Affordable Housing Construction and Preservation at Record Pace: de Blasio
(DNAINFO) Amy Zimmer | July 14, 2017 — The city helped finance a record 24,293 affordable housing units — a mix of new construction and preserved units — in fiscal year 2017, representing thehighest overall number since 1989, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.
With these units, the administration is ahead of schedule to reach its $41 billion housing plan’s goal to create 80,000 new units of affordable housing and preserve an additional 120,000 units by 2024, the mayor touted. Many housing advocates, however, were critical of the mayor taking a “victory lap,” saying that too many New Yorkers in need are still being left out of the equation.
“By making smart investments we are stretching public funds and creating more and better homes for New Yorkers, from formerly homeless families to seniors, firefighters, police officers and teachers. We have more work to do, but this city is for New Yorkers – and we will keep it that way,” de Blasio said, unveiling the numbers while visiting Central Harlem’s Strivers Plaza, a new eight-story 54-unit development reaching families earning as little as $27,000 a year.
Despite criticism that much of the housing isn’t affordable to many New Yorkers — where the median household income is about $50,000 a year — the mayor noted that more than 40 percent of these units target families earning less than $43,000 a year, paying no more than $950 a month in rent.
This also included a record number of units for formerly homeless New Yorkers: 2,571, city officials noted.
“We are reaching more of the city’s lowest-income families, making good on our commitment to reach far deeper levels of affordability,” Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer said.