Errol Louis: Thanks for joining us. Congratulations. I know how much work goes into putting out a big plan like this, but Mr. Mayor, let's start with the big headline. What can a New York family, struggling with their housing options – what can they expect and when can they expect it?
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: They can expect that the city is putting forward the most ambitious plan for affordable housing the city has ever seen. We're talking about 200,000 new truly affordable homes being built over the next 10 years; 200,000 affordable homes being preserved over that same period of time; an investment of $5.6 billion into NYCHA, the largest city investment in NYCHA for decades. And all of this while investing in tenants across the city, ensuring that code enforcement is not seen as a suggestion but rather a requirement so that when a tenant misses an HPD inspection they can actually reschedule when that inspector will come back, [or] if a tenant calls and makes a complaint about heat starting from October 1, the city will investigate every single one of those. That's what tenants can expect, and they can expect it from a City government that is serious about delivering on the housing crisis.
Louis: On that question of the inspections, what was happening up until now when somebody makes a complaint?
Mayor Mamdani: I would describe it more as an "Inshallah" system, where you call and just hope that you'd be home when they came, and if you missed them, they'd leave a paper on the floor and you just hope it would work out again. New York City isn't built on that; it has to be built on actual plans. So, when it comes to these kinds of things, now, if an inspector comes by and you're not home, you're going to get a text message and you'll actually be able to schedule when that inspector will come back so you can show them the exact reason you called when you were in the first place.
Louis: And deputy mayor, the plan allows, it's been reported, some apartment owners to charge a one-time rent increase on certain vacant units. The Wall Street Journal estimated that roughly 300,000 apartments financed through city housing agencies would be eligible, and they included even large developers like the Related Companies. I understand there's some question about whether or not that's the case. Can you clear that up for us?
Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg, Housing and Planning: Yes, I want to be clear: the Wall Street Journal's title was wrong and completely misleading. We have in this plan a deep investment to preservation and a long-standing tool that HPD has had at its disposal. This is not a new tool. It is something called "loan modifications," and there's often rent restructuring that can happen. This happens on really rare occasions. It's all in HPD's existing portfolio where we have a strong regulatory agreement in place, protecting rents and protecting tenants, where HPD will work.
And this is often with non-profit owners as well, just working with those owners to figure out what is going on in the building, looking at the finances together. We really get into the details, and at times allow for some rent restructuring to support the health of the project, and HPD is often providing rental assistance in the event that it impacts residents as well. So, it's a completely misleading headline, and it's not a new tool. It is something HPD has used in very minimal situations for many years.
Louis: As you know, some of the apartment owners have complained about that tool, saying that it's not available enough, that there are too many instances in which a building is allowed to sort of fail or at least go under water without assistance from the city.
Deputy Mayor Bozorg: Well, one of the things we have in the plan, actually, is a suite of new tools specifically designed to help owners bring down their costs and work with HPD, especially owners that are already working with HPD and have a regulatory agreement that protects tenants and protects affordability. So, the plan does actually have new tools, things like our city-backed insurance program. We're also going to be offering things like allowing them – and this is people, again, within HPD's system – allowing them to use their reserves more creatively and with more flexibility, faster approval from HPD when they need to dip into their reserves. So, there is actually a suite of tools in the plan specifically designed to help owners.
Louis: Something I know is near and dear to your heart is home ownership, as a former foreclosure prevention specialist. Loans from the city for first-time home buyers – I guess the question probably a lot of my viewers have is this is a city that's full of banks. Why is the city lending money for a first-time rent buyer?
Mayor Mamdani: Because we are invested in ensuring that homeownership is something more than a dream for New Yorkers. And you know this as well as I do, which is that for many New Yorkers, it seems as if they're further and further away from that being a reality. And what we are looking to do is actually make it easier for New Yorkers to become homeowners. That's why in the thousands of units that we've already broken ground on over these past six months, some of them have been units affordable enough to rent, [and] others have been units that are affordable enough to buy. And the mortgage assistance program is one example of how we can unlock that for New Yorkers, because we don't just want this to be a city where you can think about living here today, tomorrow, the next month, the next year. We want this city where people can actually lay down their roots.
Louis: Is that the long-term vision? Would you like to see, fast-forward 10 or 20 years, a larger percentage of New Yorkers who own their housing?
Mayor Mamdani: I think to me, what I want to see is stability. And I think for many of those New Yorkers, stability comes through homeownership. For others, it comes through their long-term tenancy. And what we want to ensure is that the city is doing everything it can to deliver that stability. Because right now, if you're a homeowner, there's a real question of the stability when it comes, especially with deed theft. When you're tenant, that instability also comes from landlords being able to violate these laws and not face any kinds of consequences.
Louis: I was interested to see a section on modular housing, sort of pre-fabricated, pre-built housing. It was said that some of it is for access to additional dwelling units – the, you know, 80 years. Would it also be for modular homes that people can live in?
Deputy Mayor Bozorg: Yeah, we really want it to be working for a wide range of housing typologies in the city. We have had some experiences that we can learn from in the past of trying to bring multi-family modular [homes] to the city. I was actually just at a ribbon-cutting [ceremony] on Friday that used modular construction, a factory out in Pennsylvania, and it helped them cut down on cost and six months from the project timeline. So, that's the type of thing we want to support and see if we can scale further on the multi-family side.
The ancillary dwelling units present a brand new opportunity for us in the city to be supporting homeowners to make more income, but also it's a really unique opportunity for us to figure out if there's a factory that can custom-build something that actually works in the New York City context for the types of neighborhoods where ancillary dwelling units will be constructed.
Louis: And it says in the plan that it will be the Economic Development Corporation that kind of oversees that. Do we have a person to run the agency? Do you have a short list of who's going to run EDC?
Mayor Mamdani: That continues to be a focus for us is conducting those interviews, and the beauty of this is this is all happening while our EDC is still running full speed ahead on all the different initiatives coming out of it, including our city-run grocery store program, which is coming through EDC, and I will just say on the question about modular housing one of the things that excited me most about our interviews for our HPD commissioner was when I got to learn of her history of being able to deliver modular housing in her prior capacity. This is something we do want to bring to New York City.
Louis: Overall, you're producing insurance costs [and] you're running these various programs to help landlords that get into problems. Was this a result of talking with the real estate industry? It looks like some of their concerns that they had some fears about are being addressed in this plan.
Mayor Mamdani: You know, what I'll say is that I've said over the course of the time when I was running to be the mayor that we wanted to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. Anywhere that costs were making it harder to either live in the city or to help steward the buildings that allow New Yorkers to live in this city, we wanted to tackle that. And when we had these meetings with developers, with affordable housing developers specifically, we heard the cost [of] insurance has been skyrocketing over the past few years. And so, we looked at what the city could do. And through the city-backed insurance program, we are able to start to reduce those costs.
Additionally, we heard from developers; even as we might have disagreements on a number of issues, one place that we will always agree [on is] the question of delays in the city. We will not allow for there to be these many delays in our housing process. Today, you have a system where from the time that you are done building that home to the time a tenant can move in, it's seven months, and that's equivalent to going to a restaurant, ordering a meal, and then watching it for 30 minutes before you can actually eat it.
And so, one of the key things was that on the first day of this administration, we were together to announce the SPEED Task Force. A few weeks ago, we announced the findings of that task force, and we have put the investments in to actually cut the time that we were seeing sometimes, by more than two years [and] sometimes by eight months, to ensure that we can actually start to move people into the housing that we're building for them.
Louis: Okay, I don't know if we should expect the real estate industry to praise you for that, but it sounds like a step in the right direction. Let me ask you a couple of questions before we let you go. The state budget is almost complete. Are there any particular items that you're getting on the phone, calling up to Albany to make sure they get done before they finish?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I think that we're incredibly appreciative of the partnership we've built with Governor Hochul, with Majority Leader Stewart Cousins [and] with Speaker Carl Heastie, and in that partnership we've been able to secure not just funding that was critical to ensuring that we could eliminate the fiscal deficit [and] that we can have a fairer relationship with Albany, but also new revenue that would be critical in being something that [is] sustained.
Beyond that, the renewal of mayoral control is a key part of how we can ensure that we can deliver on our transformative vision for early childhood education. As you know, we've been investing in 3-K, [adding] 2,000 additional seats there for the first time in New York City history, free childcare for two-year-olds. All of this is unlocked through that authority.
And then beyond that, we also incredibly appreciate the work that is being done to tackle a number of the different costs that the city has been facing that often we've unfairly borne ourselves. And then I think as we're having a conversation around housing, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention SEQRA reform. That's a key part of how we're cutting a lot of these times and delays down, and the deputy mayor has been at the heart of a lot of those conversations.
Louis: Are you confident they're going to bring that in for a landing?
Mayor Mamdani: I am. I am.
Louis: Let me ask you, everybody's feeling great about the Knicks; I saw the big display downstairs.
Mayor Mamdani: C'mon now – it's been there for a while.
Louis: You're also an Arsenal soccer fan.
Mayor Mamdani: I am.
Louis: Our political director says that if there's a game six for the NBA Finals, it'll also be the same day as a World Cup match in New Jersey. It sounds like it could be, maybe, a personal dilemma for you but also a traffic nightmare.
Mayor Mamdani: ¿Por qué no los dos? I think this is going to be a summer that New Yorkers are going to remember for a long time. These are the kinds of problems we want to have. The logistical problems of the Knicks being in the finals for the first time since '99 and for us hosting the World Cup. And so, I'm confident in our ability to balance all of these things and to ensure that New Yorkers can actually celebrate. Because as you saw, the city is alive. And it is truly an incredible moment to be in New York.
Louis: Are we going to stick with the policy of sort of no tailgating, no outdoor watch parties for the Knicks?
Mayor Mamdani: We're going to have watch parties for the finals, and it's not a question of if; it's just a question of where. Last night, you know, [at] Radio City Music Hall [and] Brooklyn Bowl, had the t-shirt launchers in the music hall. I think people had a lot of fun. We're gonna keep having fun.
Louis: You know what, we are four weeks away from primary day. I assume you're registered now to vote from Gracie Mansion. You're an Upper East Sider now.
Mayor Mamdani: You are correct.
Louis: Well, you've got a big congressional primary–
Mayor Mamdani: What if I said no?
Louis: You served alongside two of the candidates. Do you know who you're going to vote for?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, it was a pleasure to serve alongside Micah Lasher and Alex Bores. I know there are a number of candidates. I am – you know, I haven't actually received all that much mail on it. I know anybody else has been receiving mail.
Louis: Just wait until tomorrow. They don't door knock?
Mayor Mamdani: Nobody's door knocked. I'm keeping my eye on it. I will be voting.
Louis: And then finally, July 4th, [the] 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We're hearing about multiple ball drops at Times Square, maybe a visit from the president [and] maybe a wedding by Taylor Swift. We're trying to get a sense of what's going on. So, what are the big things that we should expect?
Mayor Mamdani: Well, I think at the heart of it is the 250th anniversary of this nation, and we're so incredibly excited that we will be hosting a number of different events to that end, along with what is an annual celebration in this city, and, you know, I can't tell you much more about the wedding. I don't know all too much in terms of the details.
Louis: Your invite got lost? Mine did too.
Mayor Mamdani: We're excited for all of this.
Louis: Thanks very much.
Mayor Mamdani: Thank you. Real pleasure.