When I came into office, affordable housing was at the top of my agenda, and I did not need any studies or polls to tell me why. New Yorkers were telling me every day, every chance they got. I heard it at the store, on the street, and in the subway; I heard it from young adults and seniors; I heard it from the Bronx to Staten Island.
For me, this work is personal. Growing up on the edge of homelessness, I know what it feels like to worry about whether or not you will have a roof over your head at night. That is a feeling that too many New Yorkers still feel, and that is because too many administrations have kicked the can down on the road when it came to dealing with our housing crisis. When I came into office, I was clear that I was not going to let our administration continue to make excuses or tinker around the edges.
We brought a whole new approach to housing, using every tool at every level of government to create new homes across the entire city. Last week, during “Housing Week,” we showcased our success and laid out ambitious initiatives to double down on our efforts to create the housing New Yorkers need.
Thanks to historic investments and a relentless focus across our entire city government, our administration has shattered affordable housing records year after year. Now, we are adding another “year” to that list: Fiscal Year 2025. This past fiscal year, we produced the most affordable rental units in city history and the most homes for formerly homeless New Yorkers, too. We placed a record number of homeless New Yorkers into affordable homes and connected a historic number of people to affordable housing through our city’s housing lottery.
And — for the first time — we revealed that when you put together all of housing initiatives, our administration has created, preserved, or planned over 426,000 homes for New Yorkers. This includes homes we’ve already built and homes we will build soon thanks to historic initiatives like “City of Yes,” the first citywide rezoning in 60 years, that will change our city’s housing rules and build a little more housing everywhere.
When you put together all the records, the rezonings, and the real progress we have made, there is simply no other way to say it: This is the most pro-housing administration in New York City history!
But we know there is always more to do. That is why I issued a historic executive order last year requiring every agency to identify city-owned sites that can become much-needed housing, and last week, we announced our vision to turn one of those sites, an abandoned airport in Queens, into 3,000 new homes. From old office buildings to sanitation garages, we are turning the outdated properties of the past into the homes of the future.
We are creating more homes and we are helping connect more people to those homes. To do that, last week, we also announced that we will double the percentage of affordable homes in our housing lottery with a preference for veterans and city workers. Public servants sacrifice for our city every day, and this new policy will ensure they can continue to live in the city that they love. Additionally, last week, we officially changed our city’s senior affordable housing program to build more family-sized units. Lots of older New Yorkers want to live with their adult children or live-in aids, and with this new policy, we will help them do it. No matter how old you are or what job you have, our administration wants every New Yorker to find a place they call home.
“Housing Week” represented more than just the records we’ve broken or the progress we’re making every day; it represented our commitment to every New Yorker. Our administration has focused relentlessly on creating more homes, connecting more people to homes, and helping keep more people in the homes they already have — it is what New Yorkers need, and it is what they deserve. That focus has delivered results three years in a row, and we are not stopping there. We know that a house is more than just a roof with four walls — it is the key to unlocking the American Dream, and it is the key to keeping it alive
Eric Adams
Mayor of New York City
Featured image credit: DepositPhotos.com
