Approximately 20,000 affordable homes have been lost in New York City from 2002 to 2008, due to rent deregulations and an increase of market-rate homes coming on the market, according to a recent NYU study. However, Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Rafael Cestero appeared on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC to share his take on the report’s findings. “While there was a loss of affordable homes from 2002 to 2005, the report also shows a significant net increase in affordable housing from 2005 to 2008,” Cestero said. “Former HPD Secretary Shaun Donovan laid a terrific foundation of 94,000 affordable units during that time.” He also attributed the net increase to Mayor Bloomberg’s aggressive 10-year affordable housing plan, which kicked off in 2005. “The losses of units incurred during 2002 to 2005 were completely arrested by 2008,” he said. Cestero said he plans to continue adding affordable units to the market and meet the HPD’s goal of adding 165,000 affordable units by the end of 2014. “While the inclusionary program, which requires private developers to build developments with 20 percent affordable units, will generate of thousands of units, the biggest piece of the plan will be investments in existing affordable housing buildings and insuring people are able to stay there for the long term,” Cestero said.

William “Reverend Billy” Talen, the Green Party candidate for mayor, spoke with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer about development issues in New York City. The community leader and performance artist is running on a platform to “keep our neighborhoods livable and vibrant, healthy and safe.” He opposes the upzoning of Harlem for the proposed Columbia University expansion, wants to work to make affordable housing truly affordable and to support local businesses, rather than gentrification. “We have a sense now… if we build up our neighborhood by where we live and we make our neighborhood a better place, that we increase its value and we don’t get to stay there. That social contract must be reinstated,” he said. The mayoral election will take place Nov. 3.

New residential renters face a long list of potential problems. They might find that their upstairs neighbors enjoy clog dancing or that a family of mice likes the apartment just as much as they do. But walking into a home with no appliances — and water that operates at different times on different days — is a nightmare scenario few could envision. But such was the situation for one caller on Brian Lehrer’s WNYC show. A renter in a new building didn’t have basic kitchen equipment and the building didn’t have a certificate of occupancy. Legal? Not according to Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri, a guest on the Lehrer show, who set the record straight. When you move into a unit, he said, “you should be walking into an apartment with water, hot water, appliances, heat. There might be construction going on in other parts of the building but those apartments that are being rented must have a temporary certificate of occupancy.”

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Yesterday’s Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC looked at how foreclosures have hit Brooklyn, particularly minority and low-income neighborhoods. Reporter Cindy Rodriguez talked about the way the foreclosure process affected one homeowner in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood. Josh Zinner, co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, discussed the impact of foreclosures on the neighborhood more widely.

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