BEDFORD STUYVESANT, Brooklyn (WABC) — Mayor Zohran Mamdani is backing off a major campaign promise on affordable housing as the city faces a multi-billion dollar budget gap.
He is now appealing a court order that would force the city to expand its rent voucher program – an expensive plan meant to help low-income New Yorkers pay for housing.
However, Mamdani did announce a new “Neighborhood Builders Fast Track” program to speed up affordable housing construction on city-owned land.
The mayor made the announcement at a city-owned lot in Bed-Stuy. It’s one of three he has identified for fast-tracked affordable housing – the other two sites are in the Bronx and Queens.
“New Yorkers cannot afford to wait any longer,” Mamdani said. “We are creating a pre-qualified roster of developers. We are cutting down on the time it takes to build affordable housing in this city by up to two and a half years.”
In Bed-Stuy, the median rent increased 90% from 2006 to 2023, pricing many locals out.
“I’m seeing a lot of buildings that are coming up in this neighborhood that are not for the people in the neighborhood, and that’s a concern for me,” said resident Robert Motion.
And affordable housing is top of mind and relative.
“I like the idea that he’s going to fast-track the affordable housing as long as they are affordable, because there are so many of us that cannot afford this ‘affordable’ that they’re talking about,” said resident Kathleen Snyder.
Despite the announcement on Wednesday, Mamdani has come under fire for continuing to fight against a popular housing voucher program the City Council voted to expand.
The court challenge was started by Mayor Eric Adams, with both mayors saying it’s too expensive.
“We are speaking about an expansion that would then cost over $4 billion in the next few years alone. I am deeply committed to ending the homelessness crisis in the city,” Mamdani said. “And also, I’m committed to doing so in a manner that is sustainable for both the medium and the long term.”
Jordan Christopher came all the way from the Bronx to hear the mayor’s plan.
“I came to see about if there was going to be any changes in terms of rent,” Christopher said. “So that things would be more affordable for everyday working people.”
The mayor says conversations about the voucher program are ongoing, but after working to cut the city’s $12 billion deficit he says he inherited down to $5.4 billion, the city is still in the red and he is trying not to raise property taxes.
“The property tax has always been something that we did not want to pursue,” Mamdani said. “We laid it clearly that this was a last resort.”
Some are asking if Mamdani is scaling back on a key campaign pledge by not expanding the voucher program, but others say these are the difficult fiscal choices of a mayor who may have run on idealism, but is now coming up against the reality of the city budget and deficit.
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