The City financed record-high for new construction with more than 10,000 affordable apartments; since 2014, the City has secured nearly 122,000 affordable homes
Mayor de Blasio announced that his administration financed 34,160 affordable homes last year, setting a new high-water mark for affordable housing production in New York City. This includes a record for both new construction, with 10,099 new homes financed, as well as for preservation, with 24,061 apartments. In 2017, the administration broke the previous record, set by former Mayor Ed Koch in 1989. This brings the total number of homes financed to date under the City’s ambitious Housing New York plan to nearly 122,000 apartments. Nearly 85 percent of all homes financed through the Mayor’s housing plan are affordable to low-income New Yorkers, of which more than 40 percent will serve families earning less than $46,950.
“Family by family, building by building, we’re giving people the security of knowing they can stay in the city they love. Last year, we created and preserved affordable housing that will reach 85,000 New Yorkers – enough to fill an entire neighborhood the size of Flushing. And we’re just warming up. This year, we’ll launch a new Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants that will fight for residents in every community,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“In New York City, we’re preserving and building affordable housing at rates that far outpace any other city and even most states. We’ve created a powerful machine that will continue to produce results for years to come, so that even as our city grows, New Yorkers will be able to stay in the neighborhoods they helped build,” said Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen.
"The 34,160 homes financed last year represent a new high-water mark for affordable housing, and real relief for hard-working families struggling to make ends meet," said Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer. “Last year, we broke all the records for affordable housing production, and a full 60 percent of the homes financed serve extremely- and very low-income New Yorkers. The 122,000 homes completed or underway reflect significant progress on large public sites, far-reaching policies to secure more affordable housing with no City financing, a lifeline to safeguard affordability at more of our city's Mitchell-Lamas, and major inroads on new programs laid out in HNY 2.0 from Neighborhood Pillars to Partners in Preservation. All this work complements our broader efforts to fight displacement and protect tenants, and we thank our Mayor and Deputy Mayor for their extraordinary vision and unwavering support, the tireless teams at HPD and HDC for their creativity and commitment, and all our dedicated partners for their steadfast support in our fight to keep this city affordable for generations to come.”
“HDC is proud to have provided more than $1.8 billion in bond financing toward another record-breaking year of affordable housing production for our city. The 122,000 homes created and preserved through Mayor de Blasio’s Housing New York plan are providing security and affordability to New Yorkers today, while also anchoring communities for generations to come,” said Housing Development Corporation President Eric Enderlin. “The 34,000 apartments financed last year are a testament to the visionary leadership of the administration, the ongoing support of our elected officials, the outstanding efforts of our countless partners across the public and private sectors, and of course our teams at HDC and HPD who are constantly working to meet the diverse housing needs of our dynamic and evolving city.”
To celebrate this historic milestone, the Mayor visited Tres Puentes, a new senior housing development financed through HPD’s Senior Affordable Rental Apartments program. These 175 new affordable apartments for seniors, including 53 formerly homeless seniors, were constructed on what had been a parking lot and underused space next to Borinquen Court, a 145-apartment federal Housing and Urban Development 202 senior project that the City previously preserved. This project is the prototype for the new Housing+ initiative proposed as part of HNY 2.0.
Protecting tenants is a core part of the City’s strategy to confront the affordable housing crisis. The newly created Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants will spearhead the City’s anti-harassment and outreach initiatives, aggressively enhance interagency enforcement and more closely engage with tenants and advocates. The City is also pursuing legislation to dramatically increase financial penalties against bad landlords and seize buildings from neglectful owners.
The 34,160 affordable apartments financed last year represent a direct City investment of $1.73 billion, leveraging more than $1.84 billion in bonds issued by HDC. This brings the total direct City investment under the Mayor’s housing plan to date to $5.05 billion, and the total bond financing to $8.12 billion. The City has continued to exceed its goals, not just in terms of numbers, but in terms of affordability, while staying within the amount of capital budgeted each year.
Affordable housing numbers are available here.
The plan continues to live up to its initial promises:
Rezoning Areas / Public Sites: The City advanced new construction on large public sites in rezoning and urban renewal areas, including major developments at Hunter’s Point South in Long Island City, Queens, MEC 125th Street in East Harlem, and the first phase of a multi-phase development in Coney Island, Brooklyn. These projects represent some of the 3,000 newly constructed apartments financed on public land last year; bringing the total under HNY to 10,480 homes.
Mandatory Inclusionary Housing: Since MIH was introduced in March 2016, the City has financed 1,300 permanently affordable homes, and is now tracking 7,800 MIH apartments through rezoning applications; including 5,600 MIH apartments in 64 projects approved by the City Council that have not yet closed.
421a: The City also produced 1,175 affordable apartments across 134 projects through 421a with no additional City funding. This is almost a four-fold increase from last calendar year in the number of apartments created, most of which are in high-cost neighborhoods.
Homeless and Supportive Housing: Through significant changes to our financing programs, the City secured 2,500 apartments for homeless New Yorkers – a record number that brought the total to almost 10,000 apartments set aside for homeless households over the life of the plan. In part, this includes the 4,770 supportive housing apartments the City has financed since the start of the administration.
Housing Connect: The City’s housing lottery posted 7,700 affordable homes in 2018, an increase of nearly 50% from the 5,200 affordable apartments that went through the lottery in 2017, and nearly triple the 2,900 posted in 2014. Since 2014, HPD and HDC have marketed 24,443 affordable apartments through Housing Connect, including 18,800 financed under HNY. The agencies also updated their guidelines to speed up the delivery of affordable housing and ensure those homes serve the New Yorkers who need them most.
M/WBE Build Up: New program spurred 63 projects with 18,122 apartments to set and meet M/WBE participation goals that are expected to generate more than $306 million in spending. Since the program’s inception, 105 projects have been required to participate in the program for a combined expected spending amount of $481 million.
Advancing Key Initiatives of HNY 2.0
In November 2017, the administration launched Housing New York 2.0, a roadmap to achieve the accelerated and expanded goal of producing 300,000 affordable homes by 2026. Since then, HPD and HDC have made significant progress towards many of the key initiatives laid out in HNY 2.0, including:
Seniors: As part of Seniors First, a three-pronged strategy to help serve 30,000 seniors over the 12 year plan, HPD introduced Aging in Place to ensure seniors in preservation projects get the improvements they need to stay in their apartments and age in place. Last year, the City financed 1,830 apartments for seniors; bringing the total number of senior homes produced under HNY to 7,390.
Anti-displacement: Created the new Neighborhood Pillars program to help finance the acquisition and rehabilitation of rent-stabilized and unregulated buildings, and Partners in Preservation to identify community-based organizations to develop and coordinate anti-displacement strategies with local stakeholders and tenants in targeted neighborhoods.
Mitchell-Lamas: Secured the continued affordability of 14,859 coops and apartments in Mitchell-Lama developments, including Masyrk Towers, Lindsay Park, Franklin Plaza Apartments, and Starrett City, the largest federally subsidized development in the nation. This brings the total of Mitchell-Lama homes and apartments preserved under HNY to 33,937.
Homeownership: Rolled out the new HomeFix program to connect existing homeowners to funding for repairs and counseling, and launched Open Door to build new affordable condos and coops. Last year, the City financed 10,295 homeownership opportunities for a total of 22,895 under the plan.
Innovation: Launched ShareNYC, a new initiative to reshape the model of shared housing into a dynamic new source of affordable housing for New Yorkers, and Modular NYC to leverage the use of modular design and construction.
To learn more about how New Yorkers can apply for affordable housing, fight eviction, and freeze their rent, visit the City’s new housing web portal at nyc.gov/housing.
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