{"id":350974,"date":"2026-09-19T06:56:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T06:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350974\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T06:56:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T06:56:29","slug":"zohran-mamdani-struggles-to-deliver-on-nyc-affordable-housing-free-childcare-first-report-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350974\/","title":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani struggles to deliver on NYC affordable housing, free childcare: first report card"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s first report card shows his grandiose socialist promises to be a savior for the working class leave much to be desired, as two of his biggest priorities \u2013 affordable housing<\/a> and free childcare \u2013 have fallen short of their targets.<\/p>\n

One of his core campaign planks during the 2025 race was promising free child care<\/a> for kids under age 5 citywide. <\/p>\n

However, the number of New York City schoolchildren<\/a> enrolled in the city\u2019s 3-K program slipped to 43,678 in fiscal year 2026, down from 44,729 in the prior fiscal year, according to the September 2026 Mayor\u2019s Management Report (MMR) released Thursday.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s first report card shows his grandiose socialist promises to be a savior for the working class leave much to be desired, as two of his biggest priorities have fallen short of their targets. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani at 1 Police Plaza regarding security measures for the upcoming United Nations General Assembly in New York, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n

Enrollment in the 3-K program fell short of the administration\u2019s own target of 45,454.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the city\u2019s free pre-K program, fiscal 2026 enrollment was 55,042 \u2014 lower than last year\u2019s 56,950 and considerably less than the administration\u2019s 59,250 target.<\/p>\n

Mamdani officials explained the drops in enrollment noted in MMR \u201ccould be attributed to a disinvestment in family outreach under the last administration, as well as demographic changes including a decrease in birth rate and families leaving the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

They assured that new investments by the administration \u201cwill likely have an impact in the 2026-2027 school year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani visits the Little Scholars childcare center in lower Manhattan, where he read the children\u2019s book \u201cThe Night Before Christmas\u201d and took questions from the press, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in New York. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n

When it comes to housing<\/a>, the report also shines a light on the considerable ground Mamdani needs to make up to make good on his lofty goals announced for city-financed housing construction and presentation.<\/p>\n

In May, he put forth a target 200,000 new affordable homes created over a decade and 200,000 more preserved.<\/p>\n

However, over fiscal year 2026, the city financed just 26,913 affordable homes, a nearly 7% slide from the previous year, according to data in the MMR.<\/p>\n

Mayor Mamdani repairs New York City\u2019s 200,000th pothole of the year on Troutman Street in Bushwick with the help of Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) crews on Sept. 17, 2026, in New York. Ed Reed\/Mayoral Photography Office<\/p>\n

Hizzoner has also pledged to speed up the city\u2019s lottery for leasing affordable units, but early figures show just 26% of affordable housing lottery projects managed to complete applicant approvals in six months or less, a steep decline over last year\u2019s 41%.<\/p>\n

The mandatory report covers fiscal 2026, which spanned the first six months of Mamdani\u2019s administration and the last six months of former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 term.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s first report card shows his grandiose socialist promises to be a savior for the working…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[433,3208,57,9,56,63,65,64,58,82],"class_list":["post-350974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-affordable-housing","tag-childcare","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}