De Blasio Sets New Affordable Housing Target

Mayor Bill de Blasio said his affordable housing plan is so far ahead of schedule that he's setting a new goal.

Originally, his plan called for building or preserving 200,000 affordable apartments by 2024. But he said the city will hit that target two years early. So he's setting his sights on 300,000 by 2026.

"If you liked 200,000 apartments, I think you're going to like 300,000 apartments even more," he said.

De Blasio said that's enough housing for 750,000 people, more than the population of Boston.

The mayor also unveiled a new public-private program to help nonprofits buy up rent-regulated buildings in gentrifying neighborhoods. 

"We don't want speculators to win the day," he said. "We want nonprofit organizations to get the buildings. We know they'll take care of them right."

The mayor made the announcement at one of the new affordable buildings the administration helped finance in the  Prospect-Lefferts section of Brooklyn. It comes just weeks before the election, at a time when housing activists have been ramping up criticism of the administration, saying the mayor's housing plan hasn't done enough to help extremely low-income tenants and has favored for-profit developers at the expense of nonprofits.

But officials emphasize that more than 40 percent of housing built or preserved last year was targeted to individuals making less than $31,000 a year or families of three making $40,000. And the mayor said that trend will continue. "A greater focus on seniors, a greater focus on deeper affordability, folks at lower-income levels. That will be part of our plan," he said.

The mayor said the city will put an additional $150 million a year in capital funds towards realizing that goal, which spans administrations, bringing the annual total to $1.3 billion.