Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good morning, Queens. It is a pleasure to be back home in Astoria here at Halletts North alongside those who have dedicated themselves to building the housing that New Yorkers need. And I wanna acknowledge our Council member, Tiffany Cabán, who is here with us; our Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg; our city planning director, Sideya Sherman; our HPD deputy commissioner, Patrick Love; and NYSAFAH president and CEO, Carlina Rivera; as well as housing advocates and affordable housing developers who are joining us today. New York City is facing one of the most severe housing crises in American history. We are here today — elected officials, developers, and working New Yorkers alike — because we all share the same core belief that the only way to overcome this crisis is by building more affordable housing, and lots of it. And yet for decades. Government has made it harder to build affordable housing through bureaucracy and through red tape. My friends, we are bringing that era to an end.
New York City will build and then New York city will build some more. Two days ago, I stood before a crowd of New Yorkers, tenants and homeowners and announced our housing plan, “Block by Block.” It is the most ambitious housing plan New York has seen for affordable housing in generations, and it will allow us to build at the scale this crisis requires by cutting red tape and providing the investment needed to break ground. We will invest $22 billion over five years to build 200,000 affordable homes [and] preserve 200,000 more, all while making it easier to build housing of all kinds across our city. To do so, we will partner with the private sector and use every tool at our disposal, including, but not limited to, direct subsidy, zoning changes and new financing tools. We will invest nearly $5 billion in the next two years into HPD's new construction capital budget to subsidize projects, including housing for seniors and 100 percent affordable housing for low-income New Yorkers. And we will pursue the meaningful zoning, regulatory and land use reforms that will unlock our building capacity.
One standout example of these reforms is the Affordable Housing Fast Track, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters last November. It will shorten the review process to make it easier to build affordable housing in the neighborhoods with the fewest affordable homes. We will also advance zoning changes, the likes of which we have already begun along White Plains Road in the Bronx and along McDonald and Coney Island Avenues in Brooklyn. These key corridors already offer ready access to trains and busses, but their development has long been limited by restrictive zoning, making it harder to build and harder to afford a home. And we will pursue further zoning changes to develop more transit-oriented development city-wide. An affordable home does not mean much if you cannot get to the job that pays those bills.
We will leverage city-owned land to build both 100 percent affordable and mixed-income housing, always utilizing the option that helps us build the most affordable housing possible. And we'll accelerate these projects with tools like ELURP and the Neighborhood Builders Fast Track, which can cut two years off the pre-development process. We are also exploring new strategies to help developers build as much as possible. One of these strategies will develop a revolving loan fund for shovel-ready developments that need a little extra help to find that financing. Finally, we will reduce operations costs for existing affordable housing providers by investing $100 million to back a new lower-cost insurance program in 2027. These are a lot of changes. But each of them matters.
We are here just down the street from Halletts North, where both market-rate and affordable homes will soon rise. Four years ago, Council Member Cabán recognized the need for more housing, even at a time when many in our city did not. She made the necessary rezoning happen, fighting for deeper affordability and more family-sized apartments along the way. She laid that foundation, and now we build on it. We know from other cities the difference that thoughtful planning, careful zoning and direct municipal financing can make: Vienna, Austin, Minneapolis, Seattle and Auckland. Let the lessons other cities have learned guide our future. Let our size be our strength. Let us implement these policies at scale. Let the largest city in the nation deliver the largest housing transformation this country has ever seen. Thank you very much. And now with that is my great pleasure to introduce the New Yorker who will be at the head of these changes, our Deputy Mayor, Leila Bozorg.
Leila Bozorg, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning: Thank you, Mayor. It's so great to be here in Astoria this morning. It is such an exciting week for us, as you heard from our mayor on Tuesday and now today that we are rolling out Block by Block, our administration's new housing plan. As the Mayor described, this is a comprehensive approach to addressing the housing crisis covering everything from tenant protections to home ownership, to homelessness, to new construction. At the center of our plan is a fact that you all know: we cannot address our housing challenges without building much more housing of all kinds. New York City has a vacancy rate of just 1.4 percent. Here in Queens, it's even lower. And for affordable homes, it is less than 1 percent. That's functionally zero.
With so few options, tenants have no leverage. They're forced into subpar and unsafe conditions. They're unable to find bigger apartments or move out on their own. And if they do move, too often they're moving out of the city entirely, because there are more options in New Jersey or even further away. We have all, of course, experienced family or friends that have to leave the city because they simply cannot afford the cost of housing in New York. So today we're here to talk about how Block by Block will create new housing options that New Yorkers need. It will create deeply affordable housing for low-income New Yorkers who need the assistance most. It will create mixed income housing and vibrant neighborhoods near transit, where we will build diverse and active communities. It will creating new home ownership opportunities: shared housing, new co-ops and community land trusts. Two hundred thousand new affordable homes over the next decade is an incredibly ambitious goal. But we are also backing that up with a historic investment in affordable housing. We're investing $5 billion just over the next two years, specifically for new affordable housing. But we know, of course, that money alone is not enough to address this housing crisis. We're looking for efficiencies, creating innovative new financing tools. We'll also be putting forward zoning proposals to create housing and jobs, including both affordable and market-rate homes in places where people need them. And we will be maximizing the land the city itself owns, building affordable housing, [building] mixed income housing and co-locating with uses like schools and libraries. And we'll be using new zoning tools that voters overwhelmingly approved last November to speed up affordable housing and make sure that every neighborhood is doing its part to add housing. We're doing this because New York must be a place of opportunity. Our city must be a place where an immigrant can find a home [and] a teenager can feel safe to be who they are. We cannot put up invisible walls against new housing that keep people away. So now, I'm very happy to introduce someone who's been clear-eyed about the connection between how welcoming our city is and the housing crisis for New Yorkers, Council Member Tiffany Cabán.
Council Member Tiffany Cabán: Thank you. Good morning. Welcome to District 22. I hope you're enjoying the gorgeous view. This project that we're sitting near was one of the first that I worked on as a Council member and it was a crash course in governance, I will say, and had some really good partners who helped us along the way. So, good morning. Like I said, welcome to Astoria. Almost four years ago, I stood here to announce my support for transforming Halletts Point, and before, it was sacrificed zone of shuttered industry and vacant lots across from Astoria Houses, which you can see blocking access to the waterfront for public housing residents. And I remember the moment in time we were in, actually, because we had just finished winning the peaker plant fight, which our mayor was really, really on the front lines and critical to, right?
We were balancing these fights against making sure we could get affordable housing, fighting the pollution and the peaker plant crisis in our neighborhood. And so, one of the really hard things about this project was the fact that we stood together not having the best tools and options available to us. And when I stood here and supported this plan, we talked about that and said, “I would make this decision over and over again,” because while MIH is not perfect, the alternative is allowing this land to be zoned only to be able to have something like a last-mile warehouse here, that would break workers' backs, that would add to the pollution that already contributes to some of the highest asthma rates in this city, and we had to do something, but that also we would back up this commitment to build with a commitment to have and be able to make better choices tomorrow.
And that is what this plan is. It is an opportunity to build on what we did four years ago and have even better choices and options to choose from that even more greatly meet the needs of New Yorkers, not just here in my district, but around the city. So, it was far from perfect, but it was essential considering that crisis. And that crisis has intensified. Rents have skyrocketed, vacancies have plummeted, too many New Yorker's are left without adequate housing. And every day we have constituents in our district office telling us about how their apartments are falling apart, even as their landlords jack up their rent; about how they can't find an apartment suitable for families. And we need a hell of a lot more deeply affordable units now.
And there's no reason New Yorkers should have to struggle like this, just to have a safe, comfortable, livable home. So, it's a gift, and I'm super excited and proud to work with our mayor [and] Deputy Mayor Bozorg, to realize this vision for a city where housing doesn't have to be a scarce resource, where we don't need to toil for years to get buildings with deeply affordable units approved.
And it's also why I'm proud, as the co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, to be leading on our budget campaign — you're going to be hearing from us a lot — about rentals within reach and efforts to reinvest in public housing to get units repaired and fill vacancies more quickly so New Yorkers aren't left languishing on wait lists. And I know that that is a priority of this administration. [I’m] excited to work together on that. This is what a whole-of-government approach to tackling our housing crisis looks like. And so, I hope that in four years or even sooner, we can once more stand here and see new and reinvested-in buildings that our neighbors can actually afford. Not just here in Halletts Point, but across White Plains Road in the Bronx, McDonald Avenue in Brooklyn and across the street in Astoria Houses. So, thank you very much.
Deputy Mayor Bozorg: So, as the mayor said, I get to be the point guard of the housing and planning work, but my shooting guard and power forwards are to my left here. So, it is my great pleasure to first introduce Sideya Sherman, who is the chair of the City Planning Commission. And our teams at DCP and HPD are both going to be playing such a big role in actually implementing and executing so much of what we've laid out here. So, please help me in welcoming Sideya Sherman.
Sideya Sherman, Director of the Department of City Planning: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Bozorg. It's an honor to be here with you and with Mayor Mamdani, Council Member Cabán, Deputy Commissioner Love and everyone here today. Good morning. As the mayor has noted, for too long, our housing conversation has been framed as binary choices: building homes or protecting tenants, investing in public housing or creating new affordable housing, growth or affordability. But Block by Block shows us that meeting the urgency of this crisis requires everything: protecting tenants, investing in NYCHA, launching new financing tools, streamlining government operations, preserving housing, and building new homes of all kinds across a variety of income levels, large and small, rental and home ownership. Because so much of our city's affordability crisis is ultimately driven by a deep housing shortage.
The mayor has laid out a bold vision for the future of our city, and at DCP, we will work to match this vision with action. First, we're working with communities to plan for growth and investment through neighborhood plans. As the mayor shared, we are starting with White Plains Road in the Bronx and the neighborhood south of Prospect Park in Brooklyn. We'll work alongside communities and with our partners in the City Council to develop plans that fix outdated zoning, that deliver housing relief, that mandate affordability and that address a wide range of community needs.
Second, we will proactively use new voter-approved tools like the Affordable Housing Fast Track to address unequal housing production across our city, a continuing legacy of discriminatory housing practices. With the Fast Track, we'll deliver housing where it's lacking and achieve fairer, more balanced growth.
And third, we will unlock homes close to public transit. New York City has one of the world's best transit systems, but too often restrictive zoning has limited housing, even directly next to subway stops. Through a new citywide plan, we will create more opportunity for New Yorkers to live close to everything that we know transit offers: access to jobs, schools, recreation, stores and a wide range of opportunities. The housing affordability crisis we face, and the housing shortage that is driving it, is not an abstract problem. How we address this will determine who gets to stay in New York, who gets the build future here and what kind of city we ultimately become.
And so, on behalf of the DCP team, I'm proud to work with Mayor Mamdani and Deputy Mayor Bozorg and this administration, our agency partners and partners across communities to meet this moment. Together, we can build a city where New Yorkers can stay, where they can grow and where they thrive. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Bozorg: Next, we're going to hear from Patrick Love. He's the deputy commissioner of development at HPD under the leadership of Commissioner Dina Levy. Patrick has one of the toughest jobs in helping execute now on the 200,000 new affordable homes over ten years. So, help me in welcoming Patrick.
Patrick Love, Deputy Commissioner, Department of Housing Preservation and Development: Morning, everyone. So, on Tuesday, we stood in Gowanus, and the mayor announced and promised that the largest city in the nation will deliver the largest housing transformation our nation has ever seen. Today, that transformation is underway. Our housing plan, Block by Block, is a roadmap to delivering that promise, and it starts with building more. That's why we're building a record amount of affordable housing: 200,000 homes over the course of the next ten years.
Daniel Burnham, the architect and urban designer who gifted New York City the Flatiron Building, said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans. Aim high in work and hope.” This is a big plan, a pioneering plan, and it's what this moment calls for. We have a lot to do, but Block by Block gives us the critical tools to do it with.
We're going to build more, and we're going to build faster. First is a historic $5 billion capital commitment that will allow us to grow our affordable housing production by 35 percent over the next two fiscal years. That means 8,000 new affordable homes a year with deep affordability. Thirty percent of those homes will be reserved for extremely low-income households, or those making less than $34,000 as a single individual or $48,000 for a family of four. We're going to take advantage of the speed reforms that we announced the other week, namely, cutting down on the time it takes to permit new housing and massively reducing the time it takes to lease an affordable unit. Our primary goal is [to have] shovels in the ground and heads in beds. With new land use tools like ELURP, we're going to build faster. We just saw the first ELURP project approved in 90 days, down from seven months. Our new Neighborhood Builders Fast Track will cut the time to select an affordable housing developer for city-owned land for affordable developments by nearly half. We're going to build new affordable housing across every neighborhood. We'll be working with our partners over at DCP to bring affordable housing to new neighborhood plans, and we'll leverage public sites to build as much affordable housing as we can. With the new revolving loan fund, we'll support mixed income development, ensuring shovel-ready projects across the city have the right resources to start construction. And while we're building a record amount of new affordable housing, we're only running in place if we're losing affordable units while building affordable units. So, we also preserve a record of affordable housing with 200,000 units preserved over the course of the next 10 years.
For decades, New Yorkers looking for an apartment have been forced to only ask for less. Less space, fewer options, less affordable. The only thing New Yorker's got is more roommates. Our housing crisis lies at the root of our affordability crisis. Our goal is to build a tremendous machine of housing growth across the city, achieving the vision of a more affordable city where every New Yorker has the chance to rent or own a home they can afford in a neighborhood that they want. Thank you to Mayor Mamdani and Deputy Mayor Bozorg for never backing down or thinking small. This plan is big, and it aims high, and it is exactly what New Yorkers need to tackle this crisis. Thank you.
Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. We're pretty close to the Durst Organization's Halletts Point project. Two years ago, that developer said that they wouldn't move forward with the final phase of that project because they argued it was too costly to build under the construction wages required under the 45X tax break. So, I'm wondering if you've had any conversations with the Durst organization and if you have any thoughts on sort of the criticism of 45X from the real estate industry.
Mayor Mamdani: I think I'll just first say broadly that we are looking at every measure that we can deliver on to ensure that it is easier to build in this city. And in conversations with developers across the five boroughs, one of the critiques that we have also heard is that of the timeline that it takes. And so, one of reasons that we've been so passionate in our support for SEQRA reform as well as in ensuring that the SPEED task force was not just one that was given the directive to make its assessments, but then also the financial backing and the executive budget to implement those recommendations, is that we could cut down what were two year processes into less than eight months. That we can cut down the 211 days it would take on average to move a tenant into a vacant unit and make that less than a hundred days. I will pass it over to my Deputy Mayor Bozorg to speak to a few additional details.
Deputy Mayor Bozorg: I'll just note that we are in active discussions with the Durst Organization. I met with some folks last week. The phase that has not yet closed on financing here actually qualifies for the extension — the 421A extension. So, it's not caught up in concerns around 45X. They are working to put financing together to move the project forward. So, that's the status of [the] remaining phase here. And the earlier phases, of course, have already produced over a thousand units of housing, a good portion of which is affordable, including a 100 percent affordable project.
Question: Affordable housing and that has been something that New Yorkers have been hearing for many years. And the plan is to keep New York is from moving out. How do you realistically plan on keeping New Yorker's from moving out because of this plan, let's say, this year? That's my first question. The second is, are you planning to attend the NBA finals and what's your reaction to President Trump possibly coming? Thank you.
Mayor Mamdani: I'll say, one of the few things that the president and I agree on is not just that New York City is the greatest city in the world, but that we do want the Knicks to win the championship. And I can tell you in this city, the level of excitement across the five boroughs, it's like nothing many of us have seen for some time. And that's because of the fact that the last time we were in the finals, it was 1999, Ricky Martin's Livin’ La Vida Loca was number one in the charts. And we are so excited, you know, I'm hoping that Spurs and OKC just keep going to double OT and they take it to a Game 7, and they're exhausted by the end of this.
When it comes to your question, what makes this plan remarkable is not its language, but frankly the commitments behind that language. We're talking about nearly $5 billion in investments over just the next two years alone. We're speaking about $22 billion over five years, $5.6 billion to NYCHA, to public housing residents. These are some of the largest commitments that we've seen either ever or in decades. And what's so critical to us is that we want to make clear that the choices that New Yorkers have been told they have to make, those are in fact not the choices we have to make any longer. It doesn't just have to be between whether you want to build more housing, or you want to preserve the housing that is affordable today. We can in fact have a debate over the fact of how quickly can we do both of these things. We want this to be a city where it's the easiest city to build in this country and the easiest city to organize as a tenant in this country. And so, the nature of that financial backing — that's what makes this distinct, as well as the fact that we are coupling this with regulatory procedural and positional reform within City government to start to unlock the question of how easy it is to build.
Question: I was wondering if you could talk about, you know, pushing these nonprofit-owned, tenant-owned developments when historically some of these projects have failed. You know, the attorney general has rated most co-ops in the city as high risk. Could you touch on, you know, what this program is planning to do differently or — and why you think this will turn out differently?
Mayor Mamdani: I think at the core of it, it is a belief from City government that if you are not maintaining your responsibilities as a landlord, the city will step in. We are talking about programs, many of which have existed before, but frankly that have not been invested in. And we are committed to empowering our housing enforcement teams, whether HPD or the law department, to protect tenants. You know, the other day on Tuesday when I was asked about a specific landlord — this happens to also be a landlord of a building where there was an active beehive within the building. That's the level of disrepair that New Yorkers have been forced to live with. And when nonprofits or tenants are in a position to take over those responsibilities, we're going to make sure that they are equipped to do a better job than the current landlord who is violating housing law.
Question: Another question about President Trump. So, if he comes to the championship games, since you and he have this in common, that you want them to win — you agree on that. Would you sit with President Trump? And can you explain your answer?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, if the president comes to watch the Knicks, I'll leave the president to watch the Knicks as he wants to watch the Knicks. You know, I've been lucky enough to go to a few games this season. Recently, I was at a game with the public advocate. It was lovely to be in the nosebleeds, and we'll see where I end up in the future. But I'll be sure to let you know once I know.
Question: So, the class size delay didn't make it into the state budget, and this is because your administration didn't propose language for that. I guess if this is a big priority for your administration, you're balancing the budget in part on that delay, why not get it in somewhere in this two-month delay?
Mayor Mamdani: So, this continues to be a priority for us. And we've been in conversations with partners in organized labor as well as those in Albany, all of whom had been leaders on the class size mandate. And we are an administration that is distinct in the fact that we actually want to fulfill this and ensure that the spirit of the law is one that we are delivering on, where we have students who have an easier time in learning in our classrooms and teachers who have a easier time teaching in our classroom because of those ratios that it will deliver. We're confident of the fact these conversations will continue, and we'll be able to deliver an actual timeline that New Yorkers can hold us accountable to on this.
Question: Well, first, this is a great view. But I wanted to ask you about your commission, your charter revision commission.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: Tell us why you decided to start your own commission instead of just taking over the commission that was there. Cause you had two appointments and you could have put in a chair. I also want to ask you a follow up to Trump going to the Knicks game. Do you believe that he's actually a fan and do you think that he might be a bad luck charm for the team?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I'm not going to do any analysis of the president's fandom. I will say that anyone who wants to come and watch the Knicks and pray that Landry keeps making those threes and we see Captain Clutch out there on the court, I think everybody should be welcome there. I can tell you that it feels like the thing that's on everybody's minds across the five boroughs. And we're incredibly excited for, you know — we hope to run 1999 back with a different result. Let's see how it goes with the Spurs and OKC. You've got me lost thinking about the Knicks. Can you remind me what your first question was? COGE, COGE, yes.
Look, I think last fall New Yorkers made it abundantly clear that they wanted to move on from the prior administration, from its priorities and its pursuits. And in taking this decision, we are bringing what was an extension of that prior administration to an end. And we are instead delivering on something that we know many New Yorkers and frankly many Americans care about, which is government efficiency. Now, Elon Musk manipulated the fact that so many people across this country want to see a government that is more efficient. He used that as a justification to simply slash and burn so much of the services that Americans rely on. What we are speaking about is a sincere fulfillment a vision that ensures that City government is operating with the same level of focus that a working-class New Yorker is when they're trying to balance their bills. And that means looking at the processes we have, that means look at the procedures of City government, and that means anything we can do to deliver a more efficient and more excellent government.
Question: Do you think that you're expecting any legal challenge to your commission at all?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I think that in New York City, you can always expect some kind of a legal response to a decision that you make, but I'm confident in both the decision that we've made as well as the legal team that we have around us.
Question: Also, a couple questions [on] the commission. First off, is this something that you think would have been necessary outside of your desire to end the past mayor's commission? And then second, you mentioned that Elon Musk sort of name inspiration here. Is there anything about DOGE that you admired and are trying to emulate with this? Or is it purely just a catchy name?
Mayor Mamdani: It's just the name and what it should have been. You know, I think government efficiency — these are words that somehow have been understood as if they are Republican priorities, when in fact, they're the priorities of anyone who believes in the public sector. Any yet, Elon Musk took that language and used it to cut as many jobs that were as critical as possible for so many of the neediest people across the country and across the world. Ours is going to be a focus on actually delivering efficiency. Not as a byword for cutting services, but actually a sincere commitment to efficiency. And we firmly believe not only in closing the last chapter of City government, but in starting the new one. The proposals that COGE will be looking at will be ones that we view as critical to unlocking the full potential of City government. We've seen today that we're discussing a number of our plans that are only possible thanks to the votes that New Yorkers cast this last fall, and we're looking forward to continuing to ensure that any tool at our disposal that we could use to build more housing, that we could use to be more efficient in our operations, those are the tools that we want to unlock.
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Question: Kathy Wylde [is] on the commission, Mark Shaw, [these are the] names that the business community knows. Is — are you looking for efficiencies that will relate to the private sector at all or is this just within, uh, City government. Are you looking to cut red tape that — is this going impact business in the city.
Mayor Mamdani: We're looking to make it easier for New Yorkers to demand excellence from City government. And at the same time as we look through that, if there are any examples that are clear that could help to unlock potential of the private sector in delivering those same kinds of results — you know, I offer to you as an example, you look at the SPEED task force, a lot of their findings, yes they have to do with the public sector, some of them also have to do with how to make easier for the private-sector to develop and build housing here in the city. So, I would say that the overarching directive here is efficiency and ensuring that New Yorkers can come to expect the most excellent City government and the most excellence city that they could find in the country.
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