Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Discusses Affordable Housing on NY 1

March 21, 2016

Kristen Shaughnessy: The full City Council is expected to approve a deal tomorrow with the de Blasio administration on controversial legislation to revise the city zoning rules in order to spur affordable housing. Now, two City Council committees have already voted in favor of this plan. Mayor de Blasio joins us now by phone to talk more about this.

Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for joining us.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, Kristen.

Shaughnessy: Let’s talk a little bit about – housing plan goes up for a vote tomorrow afternoon. It would require developers to create a certain amount of affordable housing if they want to develop in these newly rezoned areas, and in effect go higher if they want to in these areas. But they have to put aside a certain amount of units.

Mayor: That’s right. They literally will not be able to build unless they create affordable housing. This will be the most progressive affordable housing legislation for any major big city in America because it will require the creation of affordable housing. And that’s not only when a neighborhood is rezoned, that’s anytime even a specific building site is rezoned.  So, for the first time the people’s needs are being put first. For years developers basically got what they wanted when it came to dealing with the city government. Now, we’re going to have a law that says we need affordable housing given the price of housing in this city – we need affordable housing required anytime there’s a rezoning.

Shaughnessy: So, this would be for about a half-a-million people in total that we’re talking about. Let’s just talk about some of the requirements. It would be 20 percent of the units would have to be set aside for people making $31,000 or less, or 25 percent of the units for people making about, I guess, $46,000 or less, and 30 percent for those making about $62,000 a year –

Mayor: That’s families in each case – families.

Shaughnessy: Right. Now, would priority be given to people who are employed or, say, seniors on fixed-incomes? How does that work?

Mayor: Well, there are some priority areas. We have a – we’re starting with 10,000 apartments that will be dedicated specifically to seniors, although seniors can apply for any and all of the apartments we have. We also have a preference for folks with disabilities. We have a certain amount of apartments available for people with disabilities.

So, what we’re really trying to do is a citywide plan – it’s half-a-million people who will be covered. 80,000 new apartments will be built. We’ve started already over the last two years. This plan goes eight years into the future. By the time we get to 2024, 80,000 apartments built, all affordable – 120,000 apartments preserved in place, meaning the families that are in them now will get the support they need to stay in those apartments and those apartments will be kept affordable typically for the next 30 years.

So, this plan reaches a half-million people, it’s literally as many people as live in total in the city of Kansas City – all affordable. And the standard we use for affordability is – once you’re in these apartments, you pay no more than 30 percent of your income in rent.

Shaughnessy: Alright, we want to thank you so much for joining us this morning. We know you have a lot of interviews to get to. So, we appreciate your time. Again, that full vote coming tomorrow afternoon.

Mayor: Thank you very much, Kristen.