NYHC attended Mayor de Blasio’s State of the City yesterday in which the Mayor kicked off his speech highlighting the public’s growing fear that they will be pushed out of the City and they will be the last generation of their family to be able to afford to live here. He highlighted that despite his and the state’s large-scale efforts: his 300,000 unit affordable housing plan, the introduction of Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, 2 rent freezes, free housing court legal services, a $15 minimum wage and the Tenant Protection and Stability Act, it is “clear we have to go a lot farther” and we need a plan to “save our city” and in order to achieve that we think differently and need to fight aggressively for it.

Here are his housing related proposals:

  • Reform Property Taxes: based on the Advisory Commission’s recently released recommendations.
  • The Journey Home: based on de Blasio’s plan released in December, this is a plan to cut street homelessness in half in the next 5 years.
  • Your Home NYC: the next phase of de Blasio’s Affordable Housing Plan.
    • Keeping more people housed: Already kept 255,000 New Yorkers in their affordable homes, and promises to protect 78,000 more NYers over the next two years.
    • Promised more deeply affordable new construction units: Half of all city-financed newly built homes will be for families making less than 50,000 per year with at least half of those being for families making less than $30,000 per year. In total, this will mean 2,000 more units for low-income New Yorkers over the course of the plan.
  • Legalize Basement Apartments and Accessory Units: Moving beyond the Basement Pilot stage looking to legalize basement apartments and accessory units citywide. CHPC has previously reported that there could be between 10,000- 38,000 NYC basement units that could be brought into safe and legal use without having to change zoning. The city will provide $150 million in capital funds for low-interest loans for homeowners to make the necessary upgrades.
  • Security Deposit Alternatives: Create options for how renters pay security deposits, such as monthly installments, starting with City-financed homes.
  • Universal Renter Protection: The City will be advocating for the State Legislature to pass new tenant protections for the 2.5 million NYers who live in nearly 900,000 unregulated homes. Committed to protections that will help shield those renters from steep rent shocks and arbitrarily losing their homes.
  • Expand Community Land Trusts and Build Neighborhood Wealth: Promise of 3,000 shared equity home opportunities in addition to other new neighborhood wealth-building tools to allow residents to own a share of local development projects.
  • Repair and Rebuild Public Housing: a promise of using innovative strategies to fund new repairs and keep public housing safe and affordable.
  • More Community Centers: Reopen 6 currently shuttered NYCHA community centers and build 7 new community centers.

The Mayor has an urgent timeline to enact these new proposals as he said he wants all of these changes done in his remaining 2 years in office. NYHC applauds the Mayor and his administration with these SOTC responsive changes to the housing plan which will provide deeper affordability & improve communities across NYC.