Administration sets record for affordable housing production and meets its 10-year goal in just eight years
500,000 New Yorkers served, nearly half of whom earn less than $42,000 per year
City-financed affordable housing projects bring more than $1 billion to M/WBE businesses
Mayor Bill de Blasio, along with Deputy Mayor Vicki Been, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), today announced that the de Blasio administration has financed the preservation or new construction of 200,000 affordable homes, the most in one administration in New York City history. The administration achieved the original goal established in Housing New York on budget and two years ahead of schedule.
Making good on the Mayor’s commitment to reach deeper affordability, 46 percent of the homes serve New Yorkers earning less than $42,000 per year or $54,000 for a family of three. The Mayor’s signature housing plan remains on pace to reach its ambitious goal of creating or preserving 300,000 affordable homes by 2026.
“There’s no fight more fundamental to the future of our city than the one to keep it affordable for working families. In 2014, we set the most ambitious goal in this city’s history to build and preserve affordable housing – and today, thanks to eight years of hard work, we met it,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Those affordable units have done more than just keep working families stably housed amid unprecedented challenges. They will help ensure a fairer, more diverse, and more vibrant New York City for generations to come.”
“At the core of today’s announcement are two critical parties: community leaders who fought to advance equity across the five boroughs and several generations of public servants who worked day and night to make it happen,” said Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Vicki Been. ”Undeniably, over the past 8 years, the City worked through Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, a number of path-breaking, collaborative neighborhood rezonings—such as Gowanus, SoHo/NoHo, and East New York, and many other fundamental improvements to make the city we love fairer, more resilient, and more diverse. I am proud to say that we delivered on what was first heralded as impossible: the promise to create and preserve 200,000 affordable homes.”
“This Administration’s historic achievement is a testament to the City’s workforce and its partners, but the real legacy lives with the thousands of families who now have an affordable home to raise families, work hard, and pursue their dreams,” said HPD Commissioner Louise Carroll. “Housing New York has placed the City in its strongest position yet to tackle the affordability crisis ahead, leaving behind an impressive production pipeline able to secure, on average, 25,000 units each year while deepening affordability to reach the lowest income New Yorkers and laying out a blueprint for fair housing and equity through the Where We Live NYC initiative. Since 2014, the plan has evolved into an all-around and all-hands-on-deck approach to helping New Yorkers afford rent, buy a first home, fight tenant harassment, maintain safe living conditions, help families stay in their neighborhoods, house the most vulnerable families, and build stronger neighborhoods. The plan has generated more than 200,000 affordable homes in 8 years, and trailblazed a path for a fairer New York City.”
“I want to thank Mayor de Blasio, Deputy Mayor Been, Commissioner Carroll, and all our colleagues and partners across the affordable housing industry for their triumphant effort in bringing the Housing New York plan across the finish line. I am incredibly proud of the dedicated teams at HDC and HPD whose hard work made this milestone achievement possible,” said HDC President Eric Enderlin. “HDC contributed critical bond financing to support the ambitious goals of the Housing New York plan, and never ceased in the pursuit of innovative solutions in order to stretch our limited resources further and secure the tools needed to create more affordable housing at a time it is needed most. As we look ahead, there is more work to be done to ensure greater opportunity for New Yorkers; it’s imperative we continue to work together and advocate for the tools needed to ensure our city is a more equitable and secure place to live.”
To commemorate Housing New York’s success, City leaders visited 50 Penn, a 218-home affordable development in East New York Brooklyn co-developed by Pennrose and RiseBoro Community Partnership, a nonprofit service provider. The nine-story multifamily building includes 42 homes for formerly homeless households and will house a health foods grocery store on the ground floor. The building complies with Enterprise Green Community design standards, including green roofs, rooftop photo-voltaic panels, a highly insulated exterior wall system for energy efficiency, and landscaped outdoor space for the residents.
“The need for affordable housing in New York City is an undeniable reality,” said Dylan Salmons, Regional Vice President with Pennrose. “We are pleased to have been able to support Mayor de Blasio’s administration in achieving this record and look forward working with our partners to continue delivering much needed housing throughout the city.”
“As an organization dedicated to housing New York City’s low to moderate income families for almost 50 years, RiseBoro is committed to community development that engages diverse stakeholders and meets the needs of residents,” said Scott Short, CEO of RiseBoro Community Partnership. “We commend Mayor Bill de Blasio for reaching the goals set out by his Housing New York plan two years ahead of schedule. It is our honor to celebrate with the Mayor, Deputy Mayor Vicki Been, the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the NYC Housing Development Corporation, this milestone achievement for a city Administration, which centers affordable housing at the heart of community development.”
About Housing New York
When this Administration took office in 2014, the City’s housing agencies were on pace to build and preserve 15,000 affordable homes per year through public-private partnerships. In Housing New York, the Mayor set an ambitious goal of financing the preservation or new construction of 200,000 affordable homes over ten years. With new funding and new tools, the City’s housing agencies quickly ramped up to finance 20,000 affordable homes per year.
In 2017, the Mayor committed to achieving deeper affordability and expanded the plan with Housing New York 2.0, which laid out a sustained goal of 25,000 affordable homes preserved or constructed per year. In 2020, as part of YOUR Home NYC, the City’s comprehensive approach to helping New Yorkers get, afford, and keep housing, the Mayor further committed to ensure all new housing produced reached New Yorkers earning less than $42,000 per year or $54,000 for a family of 3.
As a result, the City has financed more than 66,000 new affordable homes and preserved more than 134,000 homes to create and secure affordability for the next generation of New Yorkers. Through Housing New York, the City financed affordable units in every single New York City community district and the plan remained on budget.
Housing New York fundamentally shifted the paradigm for how, where, when, and for whom affordable housing is built in New York City. By expanding the range of tools available to build and preserve housing and protect tenants; advancing innovative policies and programs to address a broad range of housing needs and serve more of the most vulnerable New Yorkers; expanding and diversifying the pool of partners who participate in this work; and streamlining existing processes to make them more efficient; the City not only secured 200,000 affordable homes, but also advanced an agenda designed to make this a more equitable and inclusive city.
Highlights include:
- Deepened affordability of the housing created or preserved: By revising existing housing financing programs, introducing new ones, and infusing even more capital, 46% of our total production – more than 90,200 affordable homes – serve New Yorkers earning less than $42,000 (or 50% AMI), far exceeding the original 25% target.
- Increased housing for the most vulnerable New Yorkers: Through targeted efforts and extensive inter-agency coordination, the City financed 12,937 homes specifically for seniors and set aside 16,015 affordable homes for homeless New Yorkers, including 7,802 supportive homes with on-site services, delivering on the Mayor’s NY/NY15 plan to build 15,000 new supportive homes.
- Preserved affordability at a record number of homes: New and revised programs helped owners stabilize buildings, rehabilitate properties in distress, save costs through energy efficiency and sustainability improvements and protect affordable buildings at risk of being lost to the private market. For example, HPD preserved the affordability and facilitated renovations at the Park Affordable portfolio in Borough Park, Brooklyn, with 229 residential homes, including 30% that will be available for formerly homeless households with services provided through a collaboration with Health & Hospitals.
- Safeguarded the affordability of the city’s Mitchell-Lama stock: HPD and HDC revamped programs to shore up the financial and physical health of the Mitchell-Lama portfolio, which continues to face rising maintenance and operating costs. As a result, the City preserved 67,116 Mitchell-Lama apartments, including Electchester, a State-supervised development in Pomonok, Queens with 2,400 affordable co-ops that locked in affordability and installed solar photovoltaics that will save hundreds of thousands in energy costs every year.
- Advanced policies for equitable neighborhood growth: The City launched the strongest Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) program in the nation to ensure that permanently affordable apartments are included in new developments in areas zoned for growth. To date, MIH has driven the creation of more than 4,000 permanently affordable homes.
- Spearheaded neighborhood plans and rezonings: The City advanced neighborhood rezonings in East New York, Downtown Far Rockaway, East Harlem, Jerome Avenue, Inwood, Bay Street, Gowanus, and SoHo/NoHo that will introduce tens of thousands of new homes supported with investments in schools, parks, open space and other neighborhoods amenities. As a part of the Administration’s vision for stronger neighborhoods, the City developed a Neighborhood Planning Playbook to guide comprehensive community planning efforts and to engage residents about the development of affordable housing on public land.
- Transformed public sites with placemaking projects: Since January 2014, HPD, EDC, and NYCHA, working with DCP and other agencies, have developed a pipeline of over 13,000 affordable homes and apartments on City-owned sites. To guide the development and selection of proposals, the City established a community vision for the various sites, resulting in dynamic projects such as Bronx Point, a mixed-use project along the Harlem River waterfront that will bring 542 permanently affordable homes, a new Universal Hip Hop Museum, an early childhood and outdoor science programming space, and 2.8 acres of public open space to the South Bronx; and Gowanus Green, a project that will create nearly 1,000 homes, a 1.5-acre public park along a revitalized Gowanus Canal, and space for a new public school.
- Prioritized M/WBE and non-profit partners: HPD and HDC have advanced numerous initiatives to grow and diversify the affordable housing community, including most recently the creation of a Pathways to Opportunity program to train and build the capacity of M/WBE and non-profit marketing agents. In 2017, the City created the M/WBE Build Up program to increase contracting opportunities for certified M/WBEs in projects where HPD or HDC contributes $2 million or more in subsidy. Since its launch in 2017, the program has delivered more than $1.1 billion in spending toward M/WBEs across 239 projects. Earlier this year, the administration announced that the NYC Acquisition Fund, a $210 million public-private affordable housing loan fund, will exclusively finance projects led by M/WBEs and nonprofits with at least 51% ownership stake.
- Launched Where We Live NYC: The culmination of a two-year planning process engaging hundreds of residents, over 150 community-based and advocacy organizations, and dozens of partner agencies, Where We Live NYC lays out a series of strategies to build more integrated neighborhoods and break down barriers to opportunity. Already, the City has advanced key commitments in the five-year plan, including the rezoning of Gowanus and SoHo/NoHo, neighborhoods that have exceptional access to transit, schools, and job centers.
- Increased support for homeownership: The administration strengthened support for homeowners through the launch of programs like HomeFix, which funds critical repairs for lower income homeowners, and the expansion of HomeFirst, which increases the amount of down payment assistance available to low-income first-time homebuyers to $100,000. Through Open Door, a new program to finance the construction of co-ops and condos for first-time homebuyers, HPD completed Sydney House, which brought 56 affordable homeownership opportunities to the Williamsbridge neighborhood of the Bronx.
- Promoted healthy, sustainable affordable housing: The City has updated design guidelines to raise bar for designing quality, healthy, sustainable, and equitable affordable housing. Sendero Verde, a project selected through the City’s SustainNYC RFP, will become the largest fully affordable Passive House building when complete, as well as provide more than 700 affordable homes, extensive community and retail space, a school, and outdoor gardens to the East Harlem community in Manhattan. And through the Green Housing Preservation Program, projects such as 256 Martense, a 6-home rental property in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, addressed capital renovations, including a high efficiency boiler and an oil-to-gas conversion, higher efficiency windows, and numerous energy-efficiency improvements expected to reduce the project’s energy usage by 23%.
“From the Bronx to the Far Rockaways, from Hudson Yards to the North Shore of Staten Island, we have been laser focused on bringing affordable housing to New Yorkers,” said DCP Director Anita Laremont. “I congratulate City Hall, HDC and HPD for their leadership, the housing advocates who help us get it right, and my incredible DCP team for crafting zoning policies and practices that supercharged the creation of new and permanently affordable housing. We are a city for all, and this work speaks clearly to that.”
“It is critical to preserve our existing housing stock and create affordable housing, and NYCHA’s partnerships with the Mayor and the City of New York are necessary to achieve that,” said NYCHA Chair & CEO Greg Russ. “Today’s achievement was made possible by the sizable investment this Administration has made to increasing the City’s stock of low-cost, high-quality homes and it will resonate for generations to come.”
“We are proud to have worked with this administration to bring affordable housing to New Yorkers across the city,” said NYCEDC President and CEO Rachel Loeb. “Our work repurposing vacant or underutilized city-owned sites into affordable housing developments ensures New York City remains a place where New Yorkers can live, work, and thrive.”
