De Blasio on Inside City Hall

Fresh off of a day wooing the press corps, Mayor Bill de Blasio appeared on NY1’s Inside City Hall last night in an interview with anchor Errol Louis.

Louis quizzed the mayor on the implications of the $300 million New York City is set to receive from the state for full-day pre-school. Asked how the city will prioritize which preschool centers qualify to run the new program, the mayor would only say that he is “looking at the whole city, obviously” and that the only priority was “quality.”

De Blasio was more revealing when Louis pressed him on whether his affordable housing plan would address the city’s growing homeless population. “The two go together,” de Blasio said of homelessness prevention and affordable housing.

“Our larger approach to affordable housing, the 200,000 units we’re going to create over the next 10 years is also going to have a big impact on the reality of homelessness, because it’s going to provide a lot more affordable housing options for families that are struggling that sadly, sometimes, end up without an option and end up in our shelter system. We’re trying to got the root causes by creating a much greater supply of affordable housing.”