New programs serve more of the lowest-income New Yorkers, seniors, and special-needs households
New tools like ZQA and MIH will finance more affordable housing and build stronger neighborhoods
New approach to neighborhood planning is changing how the City collaborates with communities
NEW YORK, NY – (RealEstateRama) — New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Vicki Been and New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) President Eric Enderlin today announced the release of Housing New York: Three Years of Progress, describing the inroads made towards the goals of the Mayor’s housing plan. The new report comes on the heels of the Mayor’s announcement last week that his Administration financed more affordable housing in 2016 than in any time in the past 25 years. Three years in, thoughtful reforms to policy and new programs have resulted in the financing of a record-breaking 62,506 affordable residences towards the ten-year 200,000 goal.
“Housing New York laid out a dynamic blueprint to build the kind of city New Yorkers will be proud of for decades to come – a city of diverse, thriving neighborhoods that provide safe, healthy, high-quality, affordable housing for people of all incomes,” said HPD Commissioner Vicki Been. “Three years in, we are seeing the comprehensive set of policies and programs we’ve implemented take hold and deliver real results. The progress we’ve achieved to date reflects the unprecedented collaboration of multiple City agencies, our State and Federal counterparts, and our terrific partners in the affordable housing community. As we look to the future and brace for potential obstacles ahead, I’m confident that the foundation we’ve built together over the past three years will allow the city to continue to make enormous progress in ensuring a more equitable city, one affordable home at a time.”
“Addressing New York City’s affordable housing crisis requires a multi-pronged strategy and diverse set of tools to meet the needs of New Yorkers at a wide range of incomes,” said HDC President Eric Enderlin. “Working together with HPD and our many valued partners, HDC is building more affordable housing, incorporating supportive services into our programming, planning neighborhood resiliency measures, and increasing access to critical community resources. True to Mayor de Blasio’s vision, Housing New York is laying the foundations for stronger, more affordable neighborhoods for current and future generations of New Yorkers.”
New programs have allowed the Administration to leverage City investment to provide affordable housing to a wider range of New Yorkers, from those with very little income to the social workers, teachers, nurses, and first responders who are so vital to our neighborhoods and workforce. The City also has surpassed its targets for the creation of deeply affordable housing, with 17,246 units serving the lowest-income New Yorkers, those making less than $31,750 for an individual or $40,800 for a family of three. 8,877 of those units serve New Yorkers making less than $19,050, or $24,500 for a family of three.
The agencies are also doing more to serve New Yorkers with special needs, including housing for our seniors, the formerly homeless, New Yorkers with disabilities, and supportive housing units, which come with on-site services. And landmark policy changes like Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, which ensures that where growth occurs, there will be affordable housing, and Zoning for Quality and Affordability, which improved the zoning code to lower the cost of building affordable housing and foster a new generation of homes for seniors, are already taking hold and producing more affordability and better buildings and neighborhoods.
“City Planning is honored to have assisted HPD and HDC on their extraordinary success in implementing Mayor de Blasio’s ambitious housing plan. Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and Zoning for Quality and Affordability will increasingly pay dividends in the form of affordable housing and permanently affordable housing for years to come. Thanks to the dedication and tireless effort of our agency partners, we are laying the foundation for a more equitable city,” said Carl Weisbrod, Director of the New York City Department of City Planning and Chairman of the New York City Planning Commission.
“Under Mayor de Blasio’s bold leadership, Housing New York successfully created record-breaking affordable housing opportunities for thousands of underserved New Yorkers. This report reflects the Administration’s commitment to equitable growth, ensuring that more New Yorkers have access to quality, safe, and affordable housing across the five boroughs,” said NYCEDC President Maria Torres-Springer. “I look forward to building on the progress made by HPD and HDC, to execute new programs and further tools like ZQA and MIH, and continue building a city that works for everyone, now and in the future.”
“NYCHA is proud to be a part of the most comprehensive affordable housing plan in the City’s history,” said NYCHA Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye. “We are contributing 10,000 affordable units as part of our NextGeneration NYCHA plan, which will help ensure that more New Yorkers have a safe, clean and affordable place to call home.”
“We congratulate Mayor de Blasio and our partners at HPD and HDC for their leadership in advancing quality affordable housing for New Yorkers. DOB is proud to help this effort through our new Affordable Housing Unit, which has dramatically cut construction permit wait times for affordable-housing developments. We look forward to continuing this work with our fellow city agencies in the years ahead,” said Buildings Commissioner Rick D. Chandler, PE.
“Mayor de Blasio has made a historic commitment to increasing the supply of affordable housing across our City, and this report highlights how we will achieve this bold vision for a more inclusive New York,” said Gregg Bishop, Commissioner of the NYC Department of Small Business Services. “In addition to increasing the supply of affordable housing, City leaders are working hard to ensure that community members are engaged in shaping the future of their neighborhoods and that all New Yorkers benefit from new development and contracting opportunities.”
“The lack of affordable housing is one of the main drivers of homelessness,” said Department of Social Service Commissioner Steve Banks. “This report demonstrates that the City is facing this challenge head on by taking concrete steps to give the most vulnerable New Yorkers the opportunity to have a safe and decent place to call home.”
“Rising sea levels and a changing climate will threaten New York City’s future if we don’t act to build more resilient communities and reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases. That’s why the de Blasio administration is committed to climate action to protect our future,” said Daniel Zarrilli, Senior Director for Climate Policy and Programs and Chief Resilience Officer. “Congrats to the team at HPD for their exemplary work, which smartly integrate resiliency and sustainability, to achieve record numbers of affordable and quality housing units. I look forward to continue partnering with them to deliver on our OneNYC goals of creating a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable city.”
The report describes the City’s progress towards the comprehensive set of policies and programs laid out in Housing New York:
Foster Diverse, Livable Neighborhoods
The City has adopted a comprehensive, transparent process for neighborhood planning that involves agencies working more collaboratively with residents and other agencies to ensure that new housing is accompanied by the other investments, services, and infrastructure that allow neighborhoods to thrive. Through our new Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) program, the strongest of its kind in the nation, we are ensuring that permanently affordable apartments are included in new development in areas zoned for growth. Shaping development to build better neighborhoods requires strong partners, and we’ve introduced path-breaking initiatives to build the capacity of developers and other real estate professionals who reflect the diversity of our neighborhoods, including minority- and women-owned businesses and the non-profit community development corporations that have played such an important role in the city’s neighborhoods over the past decades.
Preserving the Quality and Affordability of the Existing Housing Stock
The City is firing on all cylinders to assure the long-term affordability and sustainability of the affordable housing that already exists in neighborhoods across the city. From the preservation of affordability in large complexes like Stuyvesant Town and Riverton Houses to our new Green Housing Preservation Program and the Homeowner Help Desk we are piloting in East New York, we are using new strategies to keep buildings of all types and sizes across the five boroughs affordable. This work complements the joint City and State Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force and other robust anti-harassment tools the City has put into place to protect tenants, as well as our increased efforts to ensure that the housing stock is safe and healthy.
Building New Affordable Housing for All New Yorkers
We have introduced new programs to ensure that the buildings we finance, and the neighborhoods in which we invest, serve a mix of incomes – from extremely low-income households and low-income administrative assistants, artists, and home healthcare aides to moderate-income first responders and other civil servants so critical to the city’s workforce and economy. We are overhauling the way we do business to save time and money and to speed up the delivery of affordable housing. And we are building housing that is resilient and energy-efficient, and that supports active and healthy lives for its residents.
Promoting Homeless, Senior, Supportive, and Accessible Housing
Addressing homelessness is a moral imperative, and Housing New York, along with our homelessness programs, is helping to meet that imperative. The City has put an end to veteran homelessness. We committed in the fall of 2015 to create 15,000 units of supportive housing over the next 15 years. The City also has promised to create or preserve a total of 10,000 units specifically set aside for our growing senior population (4,043 of which already have been financed), and expanded access to affordable housing for people with disabilities.
For more information on the housing plan and the Three Years of Progress report, please visit HPD’s website.
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The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)
The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is the nation’s largest municipal housing preservation and development agency. Its mission is to promote quality housing and diverse, thriving neighborhoods for New Yorkers through loan and development programs for new affordable housing, preservation of the affordability of the existing housing stock, enforcement of housing quality standards, and educational programs for tenants and building owners. HPD is tasked with fulfilling Mayor de Blasio’s Housing New York: A Five-Borough Ten-Year Plan to create and preserve 200,000 affordable units for New Yorkers at the very lowest incomes to those in the middle class. For more information visit www.nyc.gov/hpd and for regular updates on HPD news and services, connect with us via www.facebook.com/nychpd and www.twitter.com/nychousing.
About the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC)
HDC is the nation’s largest municipal Housing Finance Agency and is charged with helping to finance the creation or preservation of affordable housing under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Housing New York plan. Since 2003, HDC has financed more than 120,000 housing units using over $13.7 billion in bonds, and provided in excess of $1.6 billion in subsidy from corporate reserves. HDC ranks among the nation’s top issuers of mortgage revenue bonds for affordable multi-family housing on Thomson Reuter’s annual list of multi-family bond issuers. In each of the last four consecutive years, HDC’s annual bond issuance has surpassed $1 billion. For additional information, visit: http://www.nychdc.com
