Adi Talwar
A New York City Housing Authority building in the Ingersoll Housing complex near Downtown Brooklyn.
‘We call on the next mayor to invest… $2.5 billion for affordable housing rental and homeownership opportunities and $1.5 billion for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), and to move the city’s reporting structure away from raw production totals and into more meaningful areas, including racial equity and levels of affordability.’
If the 4 percent rate had been fixed, the same set of affordable housing projects that lost $51 million in equity this year would have raised $240 million instead, helping to finance 1,700 affordable units in New York City.
‘Now is the time to double down on affordable housing, and build on the progress already made under the mayor’s ambitious housing plan. It is not the time to retreat.’
The Rental Assistance Demonstration is one way NYCHA is trying to close its budget gap and address huge maintenance backlogs.
A change proposed by the de Blasio administration will save $1 million in every new 100-unit building.
As the city nears a homeless shelter population of 60,000, it’s clear that a new generation of supportive housing is needed. And a federal trust fund is about to give Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio a way to deliver it.