De Blasio plans to double city’s budget for affordable housing

After pledging to expand his affordable housing program by 100,000 units, Mayor Bill de Blasio also plans to more than double the budget for affordable housing.

The new goal of creating or preserving 300,000 affordable housing units by 2026 brings the program’s cost to $82.6 billion, Politico reported. That’s up from earlier estimates of $41 billion.

Roughly $16.9 billion of this will come from the city — $13.5 billion from city capital and the rest from the Housing Development Corporation, the City Council and other sources. The cost of the mayor’s program to the city was previously projected to be $8.2 billion.

The new budget estimates, however, do not take into account revenue forgone through tax break 421a (now called Affordable New York). The new projections could also be impacted by changes to the interest rate and federal tax law.

Last month, the mayor announced that he would complete financing on 200,000 units by 2022, two years ahead of schedule. He also set a new goal of creating/preserving another 100,000 units by 2026.

Amid criticism that the city was spending too much on moderate-income housing, in February the mayor added $1.9 billion to the capital budget for lower-income tenants. [Politico] — Kathryn Brenzel