We are so shocked that our fingers are moving so slowly across the keyboard that this is going take us a long time to type. Today's Times reports, a little after the fact, that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s affordable housing plan--which some affordable housing advocates have said all long was bullshit--is being tweaked. What they say is that his "plan to create or preserve 165,000 units of housing for low- and moderate-income families by 2013 has been pushed back one year because the economic recession has stifled the financing of low-cost housing." It's supposed to be a one-year extension, but that assumes that city finances improve really fast. Recently, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Office of Management and Budget were publicly arguing about the goal. (Uh, looks like the dudes with the Excel budget spreadsheets won.) The affordable housing plan was supposed to be a 10-year, $7.5 billion effort to build or preserve housing affordable for 500,000 low- and moderate-income New Yorkers, which is curious in and of itself because he was only supposed to serve 8 years. Last September, they celebrated reaching the halfway mark with 82,500 units financed. HPD says the that "only the timeline is altered." Some people think the goal could stretch to 2015ish. One of the plan's architect's, Housing Commissioner Shaun Donovan, will be the nominee to head the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Maybe he can send a Moneygram from DC.
· New York Housing Plan is Delayed [NYT]
· City Agency Pissing Match Soaking Affordable Housing [Curbed]
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