'BUILD, BUILD, BUILD!' Plan will bring 71K homes, including affordable housing, to NYC: officials

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Wednesday the extension of a tax incentive program to build 71,000 homes in New York City.

At a news conference in Brooklyn announcing the plan, Hochul noted housing is usually the number one expense for New Yorkers. "How do we solve this crisis?" she said. "We build, build, build, build! We increase the supply."

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) received approval for approximately 650 buildings, including 21,000 affordable units.

“Our administration and the state came together to meet this generational crisis head-on, and now, the City Council has their moment in front of them,” Adams said. “The City Council has an opportunity to join New Yorkers in saying ‘yes’ to our ‘City of Yes for Housing Opportunity’ proposal — the most pro-housing change in the history of the city’s zoning code.”

These new numbers come as the city faces 1.4% rental vacancy rate, with half of all New York renters paying more than 30% of their income in rent, according to city data.

The Adams administration’s agenda to tackle the city’s housing crisis and build 500,000 new homes by 2032 included extending the 421-A tax incentive for office conversions to affordable housing, lifting the “floor-to-area ratio” cap to boost housing production in high-demand areas, and creating a pilot program to legalize and ensure the safety of basement apartments.

“My administration is committed to combating the affordability crisis in every region of the state, and I want to thank Mayor Adams and his team for their partnership and advocacy as we tackle the housing crisis by ensuring that there are more and more opportunities to live and thrive in New York State,” Hochul said.

The extension enables projects that require extended construction periods to move forward without interruption as long as projects filed this Letter of Intent with HPD giving theme a longer lifeline until 2031.

The extension removed the controversial options which allowed all affordable units to be restricted up to 130 percent of area median income (AMI). Now, projects must provide deeper affordability under the remaining new options, such as requires 10 percent of units affordable to households earning no more than 40 percent AMI, 10 percent for those below 60 percent AMI, and 5 percent at 130 percent AMI.