In speech after speech, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has cast New Yorkers’ struggles to find an affordable apartment as a force threatening the soul of the city. As a remedy, he set out in 2014 to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next decade. The city determines what is affordable by looking at the metro area’s median income – even though critics say it artificially inflates what is deemed affordable to many city residents by including data from the wealthier suburbs. De Blasio’s program targets people making less than 165 percent of the area median income.
Here’s a look at the progress City Hall has made during the first three years of de Blasio’s Housing New York plan.
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Pledge: Create 200,000 units of affordable housing over a decade.
Status: In early 2017, the city announced that 62,506 units had been financed – nearly a third of the mayor’s 10-year goal. As of Oct. 31, 2016, the city reported a total of 18,942 units had been completed.
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Pledge: Forty percent of the 200,000-unit goal, or 80,000 units, were slated to be newly constructed homes.
Status: The city has secured financing for 20,854 new units, or 26 percent of those included in its plan. As of Oct. 31, 2016, the city reported that it had completed 1,549 new affordable units, or nearly 2 percent of the 80,000-unit goal.
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Pledge: The other 60 percent, or 120,000, were expected to be homes that were preserved in a way that ensured they remained below the market rate.
Status: The city has secured financing for 41,652 preserved units, or nearly 35 percent of those included in its plan. As of October, the city said it had completed preservation work on 17,393 units, or 14.5 percent of the 120,000-unit goal.
Sources: New York City Housing New York plan, Fiscal year 2017 Preliminary Mayor’s Management Report.
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