Mayor hints at housing plan after delaying scheduled speech

De Blasio promises to deliver affordable homes for seniors, families over the next 10 years

Mayor Bill de Blasio
Mayor Bill de Blasio

Mayor Bill de Blasio touted low-income housing expansion as a key point of his mayoral agenda Wednesday night, hours after postponing a planned speech on the subject. Speaking before a pro-development gala on Staten Island about reducing the city’s vast income gap, he spoke of plans that he said would bring housing to 500,000 New Yorkers.

“We’re about to announce in the coming days something I’m incredibly excited about, something that will affect Staten Island and all five boroughs — a plan to create and preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next 10 years for our seniors, to make sure that our seniors have more opportunities for affordable housing,” de Blasio told the crowd. “We’re going to have more units for families. We’re going to have units that represent the whole range of need in this city across the income levels.”

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

De Blasio added that his administration has “an aggressive plan to build market-rate housing” as well.

The mayor’s affordable housing speech, originally scheduled for May 1, was pushed back because the administration hopes to unveil a contract deal with the United Federation of Teachers — the first major labor negotiation agreement of the de Blasio administration, Capital New York reported. [Capital New York]Julie Strickland