Mayor Bill de Blasio’s housing plan produced thousands of fewer units last year according to a New York Housing Conference analysis due to cuts to the HPD budget. Last month HPD released their housing plan production numbers for fiscal year 2020 (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020) announcing that they financed 6,503 new construction units and 23,520 preservation units, for a total of over 30,000 units. A closer look at this data shows how Mayor Bill de Blasio’s budget cuts decreased housing plan production.
According to HPD data, the city produced 5,200 units of new construction from June 30, 2019 to Dec. 31, 2019 – the first half of the fiscal year and before the budget cuts. This means that in the second half of the fiscal year, from Jan. 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020, they produced just 1,303 units of new construction housing.
Also, HPD preserved 7,263 units of housing in the first half of the fiscal year, which means they preserved 16,257 units in the second half of the year. Almost all of that tally however comes from the city’s preservation of Co-op city’s 15,372 units by extending their tax credit and with $1 million in City Council funding. That leaves 885 units preserved in other developments in the second half of the year.
The decrease in production is the result of Mayor de Blasio’s cuts to the capital budget, cutting $583 million – 40 percent – in FY 2020. Another 40 percent cut, totaling $457 million is coming in FY 2021.
These cuts will have lasting effects. If the FY 2021 cuts remain there will again be thousands fewer units produced. The city will adopt the capital budget plan for fiscal year 2021 in the early fall and we will continue advocating for the city to reverse the cuts.