Metro IAF
Fewer than 1,700 affordable housing units built in NYC this year: analysis
by Tim Balk for the New York Daily News
November 1, 2023
Fewer than 1,700 affordable housing units were built in New York City in the first nine months of this year, according to a new analysis by a housing advocacy group.
The paltry figure emerged in a report, released by Metro IAF New York, that also found the construction of only 45 of those units began under the leadership of Gov. Hochul.
“Without a doubt, these numbers demonstrate a serious failure on the part of Gov. Hochul’s administration to meet the housing goals they themselves have put out,” said the report.
Hochul has said the “vitality” of New York City depends on the government’s ability to construct more housing, and has set a target for the state to build 800,000 homes in a decade.
But the governor failed to reach a major deal on housing with lawmakers during this year’s legislative session, rendering her housing policy a patchwork of more modest executive actions
Some New Yorkers are growing impatient as the city’s housing crisis deepens.
About 50 faith leaders and 100 advocates were set to demonstrate at Hochul’s office on Wednesday and to call for Hochul to take more aggressive action on housing, said the Rev. David Brawley of the St. Paul Community Baptist Church.
The rally is expected to be centered on demands for a fully affordable housing complex at the campus of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens Village.
A spokesman for Hochul, Justin Henry, said in a statement that the governor “remains committed to increasing the housing supply in New York City.” He pointed to her executive orders and said she would continue to work with the Legislature.
Brawley said city churches, including his in East New York, Brooklyn, have been losing congregants as limited housing stock and skyrocketing rents push New Yorkers to move.
“It’s become an existential crisis,” the pastor said, adding that his parting parishioners are primarily headed to the South. “It’s the reverse of the Great Migration.”
Brawley, who is also a leader of Metro IAF, said Hochul visited his church on the Sunday before her narrow Election Day victory last year, but that she had not been back. The church voted not to welcome her back until she acts on housing, the pastor said.
Mayor Adams’ administration has proposed its own housing fixes. The city is spearheading five neighborhood-wide rezoning initiatives: two in Queens and one each in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.