Eric Adams says his administration is the most ‘pro-housing' in NYC history. The reality is more complicated.
'They're both good things,' Slatkin said, referring to city-financed housing and future production from various reforms. 'Do they add up to 426,800? I wouldn't have done that math myself.'
Leila Bozorg, Adams' executive director for housing, argues that they actually took a conservative approach in coming up with the figure.
'It's a large number, and we expected there to be lots of questions about it,' Bozorg said. 'We didn't actually include a lot of stuff that we are working on that is not yet ready to say we've planned for it.'
NYC's housing pipeline
Of the total units Adams is counting, just 95,100 are actually new homes that have already been or will soon be added to the market. Roughly 40 percent of that total has been completed.
About half of those newly built apartments are city-subsidized units that ensure rents are affordable to low- and middle-income households. The other half covers market-rate apartments in buildings that receive tax exemptions.
Another 134,700 units in Adams' total are known as 'preserved,' which includes buildings where the city's housing department offers financing to owners to keep rents affordable and public housing units transferred to private management to facilitate repairs.
The remaining 197,000 apartments fall under the 'planned' category. The bulk — about 129,000 homes — is projected to be completed over the next 10 to 15 years through city-led land use changes.
These units are projected under a blueprint known as City of Yes, which is expected to spur residential construction across the five boroughs, and through upzonings, or plans to allow more housing development, in five neighborhoods.
One of these rezonings, poised to clear City Council approval Thursday, is expected to spur 9,500 homes in Midtown Manhattan over 10 years. Two others, in Long Island City and Jamaica in Queens, are projected to make way for 14,000 and 12,000 homes, respectively — though both plans still need a green light from the council in order to move forward.
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