De Blasio Administration Touts Affordable Housing Milestone

Mayor Bill de Blasio says it's been the best year for affordable housing in the city since Ed Koch back in 1989.

So in the words of former Mayor Koch: How's he doin'?

On Tuesday, City Hall officials announced they had secured financing to build and preserve 23,284 affordable apartments in the fiscal year that ended last month. That brings the administration's total since taking office to 52,936 units. A quarter of the new housing will be targeted toward the lowest-income New Yorkers. 

"After two-and-a-half year, we're able to show that our plan is working," said Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen. "That's enough housing for 150,000 people. And that's what we came here to do. To make New York more affordable so it could continue to be the greatest city in the world." 

About a third of the units are new construction. The rest are existing homes that the city is preserving as affordable housing. Most of them are in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx — with Queens and Staten Island trailing behind. 

It's all part of the mayor's plan to build and preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing within 10 years. 

But this year's tally got a big boost from projects to preserve affordable apartments in Stuyvesant Town and Riverton Houses in Manhattan, and the end of a tax break that caused developers to scramble to get their projects in the pipeline.

"The numbers are big and high," said Barika Williams, Deputy Director of the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development. But she said it will be a challenge for the administration to continue to meet its targets while meeting the needs of the lowest income New Yorkers. "It's hard to look at these numbers as a resident in a community and say, 'Yes, the administration is building the affordable housing I need.'"