Mayor Adams blasts modern ‘Jim Crowism’ in push for more affordable housing development

Mayor Eric Adams on Monday touted a record-breaking year for affordable development, blasting criticism of new housing as modern “Jim Crowism” as he seeks to ramp up home production through sweeping rule changes.

Adams said the city produced more than 14,700 new apartments with rents capped for low- and middle-income tenants this past fiscal year that ended June 30. That’s about 2,200 more units than in the prior fiscal year, and the most on record, according to stats shared by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Adams and housing officials say the new development is putting a dent in the affordable housing crisis in the five boroughs, where just 1.4% of all the apartments were empty and available to rent last year, according to the city’s most recent housing survey .

“The solution to our housing affordability shortage is simple: Gotta build more,” Adams said.

Adams said his administration is combating “Not In My Backyard” opponents of new affordable housing, a familiar theme as he seeks sweeping changes to city zoning codes that restrict new development. So far, the mayor has encountered fierce opposition from civic associations and community groups opposing additional housing in their neighborhoods.

“Everywhere I go, people tell me, ‘Housing is a right, housing is a right,’” he said. “But as soon as we put a brick down in a neighborhood, they say, ‘Wait a minute, not here.'”

Adams framed the need for new housing in stark racial terms, blasting critics of new housing likely to benefit “single Black men.”

“This is not the Deep South of 1950,” he added. “Jim Crowism can't exist in our city. Every part of this city must have an obligation to build more housing.”

The mayor’s plans to allow new housing development in more suburban sections of the city have faced opposition from civic groups, including in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of white residents . A report released last month by policy group New York Housing Conference found that most new affordable housing is concentrated in neighborhoods with predominantly Black and Latino residents.

But the large majority of those income-restricted units feature no more than one-bedroom, a problem for families looking for an affordable place to live, according to Gothamist's review of city housing data earlier this year.

The new development described by Adams and city officials targets renters, and some homeowners, who earn less than the area median income.

About a fifth of the new units are reserved for “extremely low-income” households, including individuals earning less than $33,000 a year or families of three earning under $42,000, city officials said. The rate of development for the lowest-income residents mirrors past years under Adams, according to a Gothamist analysis.

But the data also revealed some bad news for the city: the number of affordable apartments preserved by the city through low-interest loans, tax breaks and other tools declined amid a staff shortage at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, officials said.

The overall housing numbers trail far below Adams’ “moonshot” goal of 500,000 new units over the next decade. He said the city needs to take up dramatic reforms to its land use rules outlined in his “City of Yes” plan to make a real impact in new housing development.

Opposition to the mayor's housing plan has focused on the impact on neighborhood character and infrastructure and a potential lack of community input regarding future development proposals.

Adams, flanked by top administrators and allies, presented the new numbers while at a celebratory press conference inside a new low-income development in the South Bronx built atop a former city-owned trash facility.

Before the event, tenant Antonio Lopez told Gothamist he moved into his apartment at the Melrose North complex a few months ago, after spending the previous three years in a Brooklyn homeless shelter.

Lopez, an artist and a retired cook, said he tends a garden in the rear of the building and was relieved to finally be out of the shelter.

“I couldn’t even find a room I could afford,” he said. “It’s marvelous here.”