A 'Housing New York' Report Card

Sally Goldenberg reports: "The de Blasio administration closed financing on more than 23,000 below-market-rate homes in the past fiscal year, an effort helped by the preservation of Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan and the frenzied pace of development as a lucrative tax break was set to expire in Albany."

"City Hall has so far financed 52,936 units of low- to moderate-income housing since de Blasio took office….That is enough housing for 130,000 New Yorkers," adds Goldenberg.

The de Blasio Administration announced the Housing New York program in May 2014, setting a goal to build 80,000 new apartments for low- and middle-income tenants while preserving 120,000 existing units fitting the same description. As Goldenberg notes, however, the strides made toward that goal so far are threatened by the expiration of the 421-a tax abatement.

Goldenberg also describes another key mechanism in the city's efforts to reach the Housing New York goals: the Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning policy, which, approved in March, is intended to create 12,000 apartments over the next ten years.