City Sets New Record for New Affordable Housing Development

NEW YORK CITY—While the New York City’s public housing troubles is in turmoil thanks to years of inadequate inspections, lead-based paint poisoning of some of its residents and other safety and health concerns, the city did accomplish a significant positive feat in 2017—a record number of affordable housing units built.

The de Blasio administration reports that the city financed 32,116 affordable homes in 2017, which broke the all-time record set by the administration of Mayor Ed Koch in 1989 at 25,243 units.

Last year, the city also shattered the record for most new affordable units under construction—9,140. Approximately 60% of those financed homes will serve New Yorkers earning less than $47,000 for a family of three, city officials state.

The administration also announced the formation of the Tenant Anti-Harassment Unit that will be dedicated to pursuing potential cases of maintenance harassment in multi-family residential buildings and connecting tenants to legal services resources, which will complement the city’s efforts against construction as harassment.

“This administration has used every tool available to fight the affordability crisis in New York City. It is paying off—we have created more affordable housing than any other time in our city’s history,” says Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We will not grow complacent. My administration is forging ahead with new tools like the Tenant Anti-Harassment Unit to help investigate harassment and hold bad landlords accountable. We have the backs of tenants as we continue to ensure that New York City is the fairest city in America.”

The newly established Tenant Anti-Harassment Unit will have 10 dedicated staff, including two attorneys to initiate litigation against what the city terms are unscrupulous owners and landlords. The new unit will use data analysis to identify potential buildings and portfolios where harassment is occurring; respond to emergency complaints; partner closely with the Department of Buildings and other agencies to address issues in buildings where maintenance as harassment has been identified and connect tenants with legal services resources.

The new unit will enable Housing Preservation and Development to increase the number of buildings with potential construction or maintenance harassment that HPD can inspect from 200 buildings annually to approximately 1,500 buildings. HPD will also seek civil penalties for harassment where warranted, city officials state.

In the city’s last fiscal year, the total number of homes financed under HNY to date to 109,767, exceeding the original goal established in Housing New York, and the new target set last year in Housing New York 2.0. Through HNY 2.0, the mayor committed to accelerate and expand the pace of Housing New York to achieve 300,000 affordable apartments by 2026 – 100,000 more than initially planned. The city previously had ramped up to produce more than 20,000 affordable homes a year, and now, has achieved a new baseline of 25,000 affordable apartments a year, which is ahead of schedule.

The total direct city investment last year was $1.582 billion, and the total bond financing issued by the New York City Housing Development Corp. was more than $1.6 billion in bonds.

In terms of protecting existing affordable housing stock, the city last year used an array of programs and tools to extend affordability and finance needed improvements in 22,976 homes.

Other housing-related data related to various city programs and initiatives by the city include:

Rezoning Areas / City Owned Land: Made progress on large public sites in rezoning and urban renewal areas like Coney Island, East New York, Far Rockaway, and Downtown Jamaica, financing 1,390 new homes. These were some of the 2,513 newly constructed units financed on public land last year; bringing the total under HNY to 8,844 homes.

421a: Produced 760 affordable apartments across 64 projects through 421a with no additional city funding. This doubles the number of stand-alone units created, most of which are in high-cost neighborhoods.

Mandatory Inclusionary Housing: Doubled the production created through MIH to 805 permanently affordable homes. The city is tracking 8,500 MIH units through rezoning applications; including 4,900 MIH apartments in 51 projects approved by City Council that have not yet closed.

Seniors: Launched “Aging in Place,” part of the city’s new Seniors First program, and closed the first project to ensure seniors in preservation projects get the improvements they need to stay in their apartments and age in place. Last year saw the most senior housing development with 1,888 apartments; bringing the total number of senior homes produced under HNY to 6,507.

Homeownership: Financed the first Open Door homeownership project that will create 56 new affordable coops. This was among the 7,203 affordable homeownership opportunities created or preserved last year for a total of 18,147 under the plan.

Mitchell-Lamas: Secured the continued affordability of 13,137 co-ops and apartments in Mitchell-Lama developments, including Masyrk Towers, Ruppert House, Franklin Plaza Apartments and Starrett City, the largest federally subsidized development in the nation. This brings the total of Mitchell-Lama homes and apartments preserved under HNY to 29,356.

Landlord Ambassador Program: Closed the first three projects with 100 units through the new Landlord Ambassador Program, created with community-based non-profits to help small building owners stabilize and upgrade their properties and ensure future affordability.

Green Housing Preservation Program: Financed energy efficiency improvements to shore up the affordability of 1,262 apartments, representing a 760% increase in the program’s production from last year.

M/WBE Build Up: Program spurred 61 projects with 10,155 apartments to set and meet M/WBE participation goals that are expected to generate more than $275 million in spending. To date, 81 projects have been required to participate in the program for a combined expected spending amount of $344 million.

Housing Connect: HPD and HDC marketed 16,279 HNY affordable apartments through Housing Connect, connecting 41,000 New Yorkers to a new home. In total, HPD and HDC marketed 7,834 apartments last year, a 700% increase compared to 2014.

Homeless and Supportive Housing: The agencies revamped virtually all of their development programs to include homeless set-asides, and as a result financed 2,318 affordable homes for the homeless last year, bringing the total to 8,948 under the plan. In part, this includes the 1,145 supportive housing apartments financed last year, including 500 congregate apartments towards the mayor’s commitment through New York 15/15 to create 15,000 supportive homes in 15 years.