Bloomberg Outlines Program Doubling Commitment to ‘Affordable’ Housing

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With Fernando Ferrer pushing “affordable housing” as a cornerstone of his campaign, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday outlined a housing program that would more than double his commitment to building and preserving so-called affordable units in the five boroughs.


“We need to retain and expand our middle class and continue attracting young people who will be tomorrow’s leaders,” he told a group of business, civic, and government leaders yesterday afternoon at a Columbus Circle hotel. “And we need to make sure that New Yorkers who are born here can afford to stay here and raise their own families here. To do this, we must address housing affordability with the same resolve that Mayor Koch addressed housing abandonment two decades ago.”


The plan, the fifth campaign proposal the mayor has detailed in the past month, called for building and preserving 165,000 units of “affordable,” submarket-rate housing by 2013.A plan he launched early in his tenure at City Hall called for 68,000 units by 2008.


While the numbers are not identical, the similarities between Mr. Bloomberg’s proposal and the proposal of his Democratic opponent are striking. Mr. Ferrer’s plan calls for 167,000 units of affordable housing by 2016.


The major difference between the plans is that while Mr. Ferrer’s would be financed in part by a $1 billion tax hike on private landowners, Mr. Bloomberg’s would be financed with existing revenue sources. Mr. Bloomberg said that was a crucial distinction.


“I don’t think it’s right to make housing more expensive for some New Yorkers in order to make it more affordable for others,” he said.


The mayor also vowed to focus on housing for low-income New Yorkers, families earning up to about $50,000 a year, and moderate-income New Yorkers, families earning up to about $100,000 a year, while Mr. Ferrer’s plan seemed more geared at creating homes for low-income families.


As word leaked yesterday morning that the mayor would be expanding his housing initiative, Mr. Ferrer lashed out at his opponent.


He disputed Bloomberg administration claims that the mayor’s initial program is on schedule, saying, “I know of no New York family that can live in housing in a pipeline.”


The former Bronx president also said Mr. Bloomberg’s announcement of a second plan, just three weeks before Election Day, was an acknowledgement that he had failed to accomplish his first goal.


“I see that as a recognition that the first announcement that he made fell far short, and I see that also as a recognition that we’re in an election right now,” he said. “Thank goodness for elections. It pushes the envelope on people who have been dragging their feet on one of the most important crises affecting this city, a crisis of affordability.”


While the two sides battled over which candidate was better for affordable housing, housing advocates praised both plans.


“They’re very similar,” the coordinator of Housing First!, Hilary Botein, said. “They’re both great plans and first of all we’re pleased that affordable housing is obviously on the top of the campaign issues and that both candidates have produced very serious and comprehensive plans.”


In a sign of the similarities between the two plans, a Brooklyn Assemblyman who supports Mr. Ferrer and will likely become the leader of the borough’s Democratic Party tonight, Vito Lopez, said voters now have two good plans to choose between.


“I think you need to judge it on its substance,” he said after attending the mayor’s speech. “Three years ago, he created a very aggressive, bold plan. This is much more comprehensive. The only way you’re going to build housing, because there’s such a limited amount of land in the city now, is to do zoning changes, and he’s addressed that in this. To me, as an advocate of affordable housing, it’s a great initiative.”


The president of the city’s Housing Development Corporation, Emily Youssouf, called Mr. Bloomberg’s housing ideas “all attainable” and said, “I think that he’s covered the various areas that we really need to keep going on such as preservation and more middle income and moderate income housing as well as supportive housing. I think it’s very comprehensive.”


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