New York makes affordable housing centre of 2015 agenda
26 February 2015
by Richard Forster
In his second State of the City address, Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio has announced that affordable housing will be central to his administration’s fight to lift up families and confront economic inequality.
With housing the most significant cost facing New York City families, the Mayor laid out a set of programmes to build a new generation of affordable housing, protect New Yorkers facing displacement from rising rents and harassment, and put in place the groundwork for denser, economically diverse communities.
“While the state of our city is strong, we face a profound challenge,” said Mayor de Blasio. “If we fail to be a city for everyone, we risk losing what makes New York, New York. And nothing more clearly expresses the inequality gap, the opportunity gap, than the soaring cost of housing.”
From targeted new programmes for populations like veterans and seniors, to specific neighbourhoods being studied for growth and rezoning, to new resources to protect tenants, the State of the City put into practice key elements of the Housing New York plan to build and preserve 200,000 affordable homes in the coming decade.
For the first time in New York City history, the administration is creating a Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning requirement that will apply to all major residential re-zonings. In every major rezoning development, developers will be required to include affordable housing, not as an option, but as a precondition.
Mayor de Blasio called on New Yorkers to come together to build and preserve the next generation of affordable housing as part of a broader agenda to confront income inequality.
“If we do not act, and act boldly, New York risks taking on the qualities of a gated community,” said de Blasio. “A place defined by exclusivity, rather than opportunity. And we cannot let that happen.”
As part of the plans the city will invest US$200 million in affordable housing, new infrastructure and job creation initiatives to the Lower Concourse area of the Southwest Bronx, which will include the construction of a new public open space, roads, local infrastructure upgrades, and remediation to spur development of up to 4,000 units of affordable housing.
