The rising cost of housing has driven some New York City residents to leave the Big Apple. For those who remain, affordable housing has become a top issue in the race for mayor.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

New York City has always been expensive, and affordability has become the dominant issue in the city’s mayoral race. Rents and home prices are now so high, more low and middle-income residents are leaving the city. David Brand from member station WNYC reports.

DAVID BRAND, BYLINE: Juleah Jorge (ph) has spent her whole life in the northern reaches of the Bronx.

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JULEAH JORGE: Hi.

BRAND: Hey, how are you?

JORGE: I’m OK. How are you?

BRAND: I’m good, thanks.

A few years ago, she and her 7-year-old daughter moved into a new apartment on a tree-lined block near where she grew up. She loves it.

JORGE: We came out of the house yesterday morning to go to school and it was raining leaves. It was like something out of a movie. It was so pretty.

BRAND: But Jorge worries she won’t be able to stay. She uses a federal housing voucher to help cover rent, but the program is about to expire. She says she can’t afford another place.

JORGE: It’s very, very expensive. Like, one bedrooms are, like, $3,000 now.

BRAND: She says her friends and family are already leaving the city.

JORGE: I know people who are going to North Carolina. I know people who are going to Connecticut. I know people who are going to Jersey.

BRAND: Most New Yorkers can relate. Rents are reaching absurd heights. In Manhattan, median rent for a two-bedroom is now $5,600 a month, according to listing site StreetEasy. Nathan Gusdorf is executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute and says it’s hurting the city’s future.

NATHAN GUSDORF: Increasing the affordability is really essential to the long-term population growth and economic growth of the city as a whole.

BRAND: Four years ago, a spike in crime and public safety concerns defined the mayor’s race and helped carry former cop Eric Adams to victory. But Adams dropped his reelection campaign last month. This time around, it’s all about affordability.

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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Freeze the rent. Freeze the rent. Freeze the rent.

BRAND: Zohran Mamdani rallied in the Bronx to tout his affordability plans earlier this month. Mamdani was a little-known state assembly member when he announced his candidacy last year, but he rocketed to victory in the Democratic primary by pledging to freeze rents for tenants in a million regulated apartments. He says rising costs are driving people away.

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ZOHRAN MAMDANI: It’s the number one reason that New Yorkers are becoming residents of Jersey City, of Pennsylvania, of Connecticut, ’cause they cannot afford this city.

BRAND: Mamdani is also pledging to make child care free for families and he wants the government to fund or finance 200,000 new apartments priced for low and middle-income renters. Some of his policy plans require state approval and won’t come cheap for taxpayers, but he says they’re worth it.

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MAMDANI: There is an anxiety that many live with, not knowing if the struggle that they’re in that – right now is going to get even worse.

BRAND: Winning the Democratic nomination usually guarantees victory in the general election in deep blue New York City. But this year is different. Former Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo is running as a centrist independent with a focus on streamlining new construction by coordinating with developers, labor unions and city agencies. He wants to build new homes much faster.

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ANDREW CUOMO: Affordable housing is a crisis because it will stop the young people from coming.

BRAND: Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa says the solution is lifting costly regulations for landlords and lowering property taxes.

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CURTIS SLIWA: I’m the only candidate who says, we’ve got to across the board cut the taxes or the flight will continue.

BRAND: Last year, the city changed zoning rules to allow for more new housing. But those early efforts will take years to put a dent in the affordability crisis. Back at her Bronx apartment, Juleah Jorge says her true goal is to buy her own multi-family home so she can lease an apartment to a low-income family.

JORGE: I want to be the change that I want to see. So I’m hoping that one day I get to that point where I can do that.

BRAND: She hopes the next mayor’s policies help make that dream a reality. For NPR News, I’m David Brand in New York.

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