New York City paid to preserve or build nearly 26,000 affordable homes last year, breaking a record for new-built dwellings, officials said Monday.
The overall total dropped from 34,000 in 2018 but tops any other year, according to city statistics. The 2019 figure includes nearly 10,200 newly constructed homes, as well as 3,030 units for the formerly homeless.
"With every affordable apartment, we are stabilizing the lives of families across the city," Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.
Affordable housing was a cornerstone of the Democrat's 2013 campaign, as he portrayed a "tale of two cities" in which poor and middle-class people were being priced out of a place where income inequality was becoming increasingly stark.
He initially set a goal of creating or preserving 200,000 affordable apartments by 2024. While running for re-election — and facing pressure to do more to house the poor and senior citizens — he upped the plan to 300,000 affordable homes by 2026 and made other adjustments. Preserving can mean providing subsidies or making other arrangements with landlords to prevent rent-regulated apartments from converting to market-rate.
The city says it has spent $6.6 billion to create or preserve 147,933 affordable homes during de Blasio's six years in office so far.
Over 40% of the homes are priced to be affordable for people with what the federal government defines as extremely low or very low incomes for New York City — under $37,350 for a single person or $48,050 a year for a family of three, for example.
