May 8, 2014
By Stephanie West
New York, NY — Mayor Bill de Blasio has laid out a 10-year plan to build or preserve 200,000 affordable apartments across all five boroughs—enough housing to serve more than a half-million New Yorkers, a $41 billion housing plan. Mayor de Blasio has pledged it would reach New Yorkers ranging from those with very low incomes at the bottom of the economic ladder, all the way to those in the middle class facing ever-rising rents in their neighborhoods.
“We have a crisis of affordability on our hands. It touches everyone from the bottom of the economic ladder, all the way up to the middle class. And so we are marshaling every corner of government and the private sector in an unprecedented response,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “This plan thinks big – because it has to. The changes we are setting in motion today will reach a half-million New Yorkers, in every community, and from every walk of life. They will make our families and our city stronger.”
The plan calls for 200,000 affordable units over 10 years—120,000 preserved and 80,000 newly built. Affordability programs will serve households ranging from middle- to extremely low-income including under $25,150 for a family of four. Approximately 194,000 construction jobs and nearly 7,100 permanent jobs will be generated by the housing plan.
“The lack of affordable housing is a crisis that affects New York’s ability to continue to be a home and pathway to a thriving and productive middle class. Mayor de Blasio’s plan to protect or defend 200,000 units of affordable housing will begin to ensure that New York remains affordable to the middle class while also helping low income New Yorkers for whom the affordability crisis has had a devastating impact,” said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
