When candidate Eric Adams met with the United for Housing coalition in March of 2021, he made a bold promise to allocate $4 billion in capital for affordable housing and public housing in New York City, calling it “a smart ask.” He also supported the principles we used to guide us in developing our recommendations, saying they were “extremely important” and similar to what he laid out in his campaign plan. Now that Eric Adams is mayor, it is time for him to honor his commitments.
The proposal to invest $4 billion in housing capital comes from United for Housing, a coalition led by the New York Housing Conference of more than 90 organizations that came together and developed consensus recommendations for the next mayor to address the crisis. We called on mayoral candidates to double housing capital funding to $4 billion per year, including $2.5 billion for affordable housing construction and preservation and $1.5 billion for the New York City Housing Authority. In addition, we also agreed on over 30 other policy recommendations around affordable housing, homelessness, homeownership, and public housing.
Today we are releasing a policy brief showing why this investment is good fiscal policy and the benefits of affordable housing to the community.
Read the policy brief here.