City says it will spend $500M on new housing for seniors

The waitlist for public housing exceeds 200,000 families

Mayor Bill de Blasio (Credit: Pixabay)
Mayor Bill de Blasio (Credit: Pixabay)

The de Blasio administration says it will build thousands of affordable housing units for seniors on vacant parking lots, green spaces and other unused land, in the hope of chipping away at a public housing waitlist that currently exceeds 200,000 families.

The city made an initial commitment of $500 million to build a “few thousand” units in its proposed $89 billion budget released this week, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The news comes after a $2 billion settlement by the city to spend on its public housing system over the next decade after federal prosecutors charged the New York City Housing Authority with failing to meet health and safety standards.

In addition, the city will spend $1 billion over the first four years on top of what it’s already designated to NYCHA, and another $200 million each following year over the 10-year term.

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“Fairness means people who worked so hard their whole lives can actually make ends meet,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a rally Tuesday evening, according to the Journal.

The pledges will help reduce an increasing waitlist for public housing, which currently stands at 207,000, in addition to almost 60,000 people living in homeless shelters.

As part of its “NextGen'” housing plan, NYCHA has pursued deals with private developers to build on unused city land. [WSJ] — David Jeans