‘The de Blasio administration has had the tools at its disposal to produce more deeply affordable housing for New York City’s poorer residents, who are disproportionately black and Latino.’
The detailed study by the city’s Independent Budget Office set out to address questions that have dogged the de Blasio plan, as they dogged the Bloomberg administration’s housing plan before it.
‘Mayor de Blasio’s plan to combat homelessness was a good start, but its commitment to permanent housing solutions falls short for the magnitude of the emergency we face,’ Borough President Eric Adams writes.
The de Blasio administration defended its housing lottery system against claims of opacity and unfairness.
The mayor in 2015 set a goal of rezoning up to 15 neighborhoods in a drive to create more density and more affordable housing. Five rezonings have passed and at least three are likely to move forward in 2019.
‘Housing affordability can seem like an intractable problem – an issue where local policy makers are powerless in the face of national economic forces. The reality is quite different.’
Even taking Section 8 and other assistance programs into account, it’s still the poorest New Yorkers that struggle the most with housing costs.
‘In a recent discussion, some very basic assumptions of our sector were challenged.’
Bitterly opposed by many neighborhood residents, the rezoning passed the Council with a single no vote.
Advocates from Buffalo to Brownsville and the LES to LA are voicing concerns about displacement. One local group has compiled a menu of policies to fight it.