Nine months after Bill de Blasio announced his ambitious plan to create or save 200,000 units of affordable housing over the course of 10 years, the mayor plans to make that the primary focus of his second State of the City speech today, according to a video released by his office (above) and an article in the New York Times. Among the new strategies that de Blasio is expected to announce are a rezoning of East Harlem and Stapleton, Staten Island that would allow for taller residential buildings and would require affordable housing, and a $36 million program to provide legal services to tenants in newly rezoned neighborhoods to protect them against harassment from landlords. The mayor will also announce plans to build 160,000 new units of market-rate housing to correct "a serious supply-and-demand imbalance" per deputy mayor for housing and economic development Alicia Glen. NY YIMBY points out that this would be far more units than were constructed under the aggressively pro-development Bloomberg. "We want to explain the benefits of density, and why density is not, per se, a scary thing," said Glen.
· In 2nd Year, Mayor de Blasio Will Focus on Making Housing Denser and More Affordable [NYT]
· De Blasio to target affordable housing in his State of the City [Capital NY]
· Bill de Blasio to Announce a Boost in Market-Rate Housing Production [NY YIMBY]
· Affordable Housing coverage [Curbed]
Filed under:
Loading comments...