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NYC Housing Budget Cuts Partially Restored As De Blasio Tries To Deliver On Affordable Housing Promises
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Sydney Pereira
Published Oct 22, 2020
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By
Sydney Pereira
Published Oct 22, 2020
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Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to restore about half of the funding his administration has cut from its housing department budget, in another attempt to lessen the blow of COVID-19 to his affordable housing plans.
Housing advocates and City Council members had decried the $1 billion in capital reductions over the last two years to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which would have meant the loss of some 21,000 affordable apartments, according to an analysis by the New York Housing Conference.
The organization's analysis found the 40% cut to the HPD budget would impact financing to preserve about 15,700 units and build another 5,300. About 22,000 fewer construction jobs would have been created, and another 12,000 other indirect jobs. Meanwhile, because the city's capital budget is funded through bonds, the actual operating savings would have amounted to just $30 million.
About half of the cuts have been restored, $466 million from fiscal year 2021. Another $583 million from last year's budget remains cut for this year, pushed out to later fiscal years.
"Rebuilding a fairer and better New York City means investing in affordable housing and making our neighborhoods more inclusive," de Blasio said in a statement.
HPD Commissioner Louise Carroll said in a statement: "With these restored funds, we’ll be forging ahead on the goals of Housing New York with an even sharper focus on protecting the most vulnerable among us—New Yorkers at the lowest income levels, our seniors, those experiencing homelessness—and helping make this city a more equitable place by supporting M/WBE’s and nonprofits projects as well as those in neighborhoods hit hard by COVID-19."
The de Blasio administration is aiming to create 300,000 affordable homes by 2026. City Hall says the city has so far financed 166,000 affordable homes, with about 44% for those making less than $51,200 for a family of three. But the mayor has been criticized for his affordable housing strategies—through rezoning mostly low-income neighborhoods to accelerate real estate development and with income restrictions that too often leave out low-income families.
Earlier this week, de Blasio laid out a sweeping housing equity plan years in the making, listing a lengthy set of goals and metrics for fighting housing discrimination. The plan was created through a process mandated by an Obama era rule requiring cities to lay out their vision to make good on the 1968 Fair Housing Act to end racist housing policies. Though the Trump administration scrapped the rule, the city continued on with its planning process to create the so-called "blueprint."
Among the goals in the plan included recently announced efforts to rezone high-income areas such as SoHo and Gowanus for more apartments, continuing human rights laws enforcement on housing discrimination, and lifting housing restrictions on formerly incarcerated individuals, for which a bill was recently introduced in the City Council.
But as he released the so-called "Where We Live NYC" plan, Rachel Fee, the executive director of NYHC, said the hundreds of pages in the housing equity plan wouldn't be as meaningful without the funding to back it.
On Thursday, she said the restoration of funds was "encouraging" but planned to continue pushing for all of HPD's budget to be restored.
"We are relieved that the mayor reversed course and we will continue to advocate for full restoration of the cuts and for funds to be spent as soon as possible," Fee said. "We expect this restoration to HPD's budget will finance about 11,000 units of affordable housing."
Brooklyn Councilmember Brad Lander, who had also criticized the cuts alongside Councilmember Vanessa Gibson this summer, said: "It’s great that the administration has listened to the voice of affordable housing and economic recovery advocates and restored the $466 million that had been cut from this year’s affordable housing budget.”
"It really helps us put affordable housing into play much sooner," Lander said. But he's still hoping last year's cuts can be fully restored as well.
"We can do more. But this is a very good step," he said.
Tagged
COVID-19
affordable housing
coronavirus
Sydney Pereira
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