April 26, 2013
Stephanie West
NEW YORK NY – Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has called for a major overhaul of the City’s affordable housing strategy, announcing a plan to build over 100,000 new affordable units and preserve nearly 90,000 more over the next eight years. De Blasio presented his plan, “Foundation for an Affordable City,” at a press conference in Brooklyn,
Thursday June 25, 2013 labeling the rapid rise in rent and falling incomes for working New Yorkers as a “full-blown crisis.” De Blasio urged a new approach that demands more from real estate interests and secures greater support for tenants and small landlords.
The plan calls for transitioning from the voluntary “inclusionary zoning” program to mandatory requirements to build permanently affordable housing. It proposes new incentives to convert vacant lots and abandoned buildings into safe, affordable units and bring undocumented dwellings like those in basements into the legal, rent-regulated system. And it lays out strong new protections for tenants and seniors.
“Letting the real estate industry keep calling all the shots with our housing policy isn’t going to deliver what working people need. We need a new direction: hard and fast rules that mandate truly affordable housing, and innovative ways to tap the latent potential of everything from vacant lots to pension funds to bring more units online,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. “If we don’t act swiftly and decisively, we’re consigning ourselves to a ‘Tale of Two Cities,’ where mixed-income neighborhoods will be a thing of the past.”
