Mayor Adams: $2B Affordable Housing Boost, 10-Year Plan Hits $26B Record

NYC Mayor Eric Adams today celebrated an on-time, balanced, and fiscally-responsible $112.4 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Adopted Budget that addresses the city’s affordability crisis head-on.

The mayor invests in the future of the city and the working-class people who make New York the greatest city in the world. The budget specifically invests $2 billion in capital funds across FY25 and FY26 to the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) capital budgets. In total, the Adams administration has committed a record $26 billion in housing capital in the current 10-year plan as the city faces a general housing crisis. The historic investments support the Adams administration’s “moonshot” goal of building 500,000 new homes by 2032 and its commitment to transforming NYCHA. Finally, the announcement comes as the Adams administration is advocating for passage of the “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity,” the most pro-housing zoning proposal in New York City’s history that will help build “a little more housing in every neighborhood.” 

On Sunday, the City Council voted to pass the FY25 Budget. After Friday’s announcement, New Yorkers from across the city, including housing advocates, praised the budget for its wide-ranging investments that help protect public safety, rebuild the economy, and make New York City more livable.  

“Despite facing unprecedented challenges, our administration and the City Council passed a collaborative budget that addresses the issues that cost New Yorkers the most, including housing,” said Mayor Adams. “Together, we are investing a historic $2 billion in capital funds to HPD and NYCHA, bringing our total investment in affordable housing to more than $26 billion — a new record level. We must throw open the doors to new solutions and housing in our city to keep New York a city for everyone. With these investments, we are going to build to build a city that is more affordable, and that provides opportunity and security for all.” 

“Investing in affordable housing is an absolute priority for the future of our city,” said First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright. “This additional $2 billion in funding for preserving and building affordable and public housing is a huge win for our community, and we are grateful for our partners in the City Council for recognizing how important housing is for all New Yorkers. Our administration is committed to our expansive housing agenda. With the ‘City of Yes for Housing Opportunity’ and combined with this significant investment today, we are confident in our trajectory to increase housing opportunities for all New Yorkers.”   

“Making good on our promise to increase affordable housing, support cultural institutions, and invest in libraries, we have funded and restored critical services for New Yorkers thanks to responsible fiscal management,” said Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer. “With an additional $2 billion in funding for affordable and public housing, we are building off our legislative wins in Albany, advancing our pathbreaking ‘City of Yes’ proposal, and continuing to demonstrate how Mayor Eric Adams is the most pro-housing mayor in our city’s history. We thank the City Council for their partnership and shared commitment to improving the lives of all New Yorkers through this year’s budget process.” 

“Homes provide stability and a base to build from, and, in funding housing, New York City is recognizing the critical value quality affordable homes provide,” said New York City Executive Director for Housing Leila Bozorg. “The additional housing funds announced via this budget deal mark a record $26 billion investment in housing, cementing this administration’s record as the most pro-housing in history. With this added funding, New York City will be able to build and preserve more affordable housing, develop more supportive housing, and renovate more apartments for NYCHA residents. At a time when finding an affordable home is a real challenge, this historic investment in housing is a crucial investment in New Yorkers’ futures.”  

“An additional $2 billion isn’t an abstract number, it is a decisive and deliberate investment in confronting the housing crisis our agency works to tackle every day,” said HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrion Jr. “The mayor’s commitment marks yet another important step towards giving us the resources for more affordable housing units and the city’s collective efforts to create enough new homes so that every New Yorker will have access to a safe, accessible home. We are grateful to Mayor Eric Adams for his leadership and appreciate all our partners, in and out of government, that work with us to make New York a more equitable city.” 

“It will take every tool in the city’s toolbox to address our housing crisis,” said New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) Director Dan Garodnick. “This historic investment in the Fiscal Year 2025 Adopted Budget sets us up for success, and will work in tandem with our ‘City of Yes for Housing Opportunity’ proposal to create opportunities across the city, help working families thrive in New York, and create the housing New Yorkers need.” 

“The preservation of NYCHA’s housing stock is absolutely critical amid the current housing crisis,” said NYCHA Chief Executive Officer Lisa Bova-Hiatt. “Equally important is the improvement of the quality of life for the one in 17 New Yorkers who call NYCHA home. With this funding, Mayor Adams and the New York City Council have ensured additional, holistic renovations to NYCHA campuses across the city through the PACT program and Public Housing Preservation Trust. We are incredibly grateful for their prioritization of NYCHA residents, and their ongoing dedication to public housing in the greatest city in the world.” 

The $2 billion in capital funds across FY25 and FY26 will deliver $700 million towards NYCHA, primarily to support PACT and Public Housing Trust projects. These extensive renovation projects will result in critical upgrades and improved conditions for NYCHA homes and campuses. Recent PACT projects include updates to units, such as redone bathrooms, kitchens, and new flooring; as well as upgrades across properties, including updated heat and hot water systems, refreshed building entryways, free WiFi, and enhanced security systems. The scope of specific updates for properties are developed through engagement processes involving NYCHA residents.  

The remaining $1.3 billion will support HPD programs that focus on preserving and building new affordable housing, supportive housing, and homeownership. At a time when low vacancy rates and high housing costs underscore the need for affordable housing, this investment will result in the construction of new affordable homes for lower-income households, create more supportive homes for those who can benefit from on-site supportive housing, offer the opportunity to build generational wealth through access to affordable homeownership, and fund preservation work to improve housing quality, enabling tenants to stay in their homes. 

Thanks to the Adams administration’s ongoing strong fiscal management, which was bolstered by better-than-expected revenue growth, the administration overcame unprecedented challenges in this budget cycle to stabilize the city’s financial outlook and close a $7.1 billion budget gap. Now, because of steady, decisive decision making, this Adopted Budget allows the Adams administration and the City Council to reinvest in initiatives and programs that make New York City more affordable and that address the three things that cost New Yorkers the most — housing, child care, and health care — and invest billions of dollars of city resources in critical areas, including early childhood education, cultural organizations, parks, public safety, housing, health care, and more. 

Through a set of carefully crafted zoning changes, City of Yes for Housing Opportunity will increase overall housing supply across the five boroughs. DCP released the draft environmental impact statement of the proposal, which estimates it could produce as many as 108,850 new homes over the next 15 years. The proposal includes lifting arbitrary and costly parking mandates for new residential construction; the Universal Affordability Preference, a bonus allowing roughly 20 percent more housing in developments, as long as the additional homes are permanently affordable at an average of 60 percent of the area median income; transit-oriented development and Town Center zoning, which would allow three-to-five story apartment buildings to be built near transit and along commercial corridors, respectively; and allowing homeowners to add accessory homes like backyard cottages. 

Additional proposal components include facilitating conversion of non-residential buildings like offices to housing; re-legalizing small and shared housing models with common facilities like kitchens; allowing development on large lots known as campuses that are today limited by outdated rules from using existing development rights; and creating new zoning districts that would allow more housing, including mandatory affordable housing, that had previously been restricted by state law. City agencies are also advancing a slate of related, non-zoning efforts to guide implementation of the proposals, such as rules for HPD’s administration of the Universal Affordability Preference, as well as technical assistance and financing tools to assist homeowners who want to add secondary homes onto their properties. 

In addition to City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, the Adams administration is using every tool available tool possible to address the city’s housing crisis. Mayor Adams and members of the administration successfully advocated for new tools in this year’s New York state budget that will spur the creation of urgently needed housing. These include a new tax incentive for multifamily rental construction, a tax incentive program to encourage office conversions to create more affordable units, lifting the arbitrary “floor-to-area ratio” cap that held back affordable housing production in certain high-demand areas of the city, and the ability to create a pilot program to legalize and make safe basement apartments. 

Under Mayor Adams’ leadership, the city financed a record number of affordable homes in 2023 and is ahead of schedule on a 2024 State of the City commitment to advance two dozen 100-percent affordable housing projects on city-owned land this year through the “24 in ‘24” initiative. Mayor Adams has also taken steps to cut red tape and speed up the delivery of much-needed housing, including through the “Green Fast Track for Housing,” a streamlined environmental review process for qualifying small- and medium-sized housing projects; the Office Conversion Accelerator, an interagency effort to guide buildings that wish to convert through city bureaucracy; and other initiatives of the Building and Land Use Approval Streamlining Taskforce. 

City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is the third of the Adams administration’s three “City of Yes” initiatives to update New York City’s zoning for a more sustainable, prosperous, and affordable city. The first — “City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality”— was adopted by the City Council last December. The second — “City of Yes for Economic Opportunity” was adopted by the City Council in June.  

“Our city’s many decades long affordable housing crisis has solutions — political will in the form of bold leadership and equally bold investment,” said Michelle de la Uz, Executive Director, Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC). “Thank you to Mayor Adams, Speaker Adams and the City Council for including an additional $2 billion in critically needed city capital funds over the next two years to address and preserve affordable and public housing for New Yorkers in need. FAC looks forward to continued partnership and advocacy to ensure all New Yorkers can live in safe, stable homes they can afford.” 

“We thank Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council for adding $2 billion to the housing capital budget including support for additional staff to administer the housing program and distribute the funds,” said Reverend Peter Cook, executive director, New York State Council of Churches. “The city has for years faced an affordable housing crisis. It has not, however, offered enough housing capital to come close to meeting the demand. It has been discouraging to tell faith communities, which want to build affordable housing on their property, about the limited public dollars for housing and the corresponding length of the approval process due to lack of money and staffing. While much more is needed, 2 billion is a big improvement which will result in more city residents being able to find an affordable and permanent home.”   

“Budgets are always a statement of priorities; therefore, the NYC Housing Partnership celebrates the substantial increase in city funding for housing opportunities in New York City, especially towards affordable homeownership, said Jamie A. Smarr, CEO, NYC Housing Partnership. “We thank the Adams administration for their leadership towards securing and growing New York’s neighborhoods and the housing well-being of New Yorkers.” 

We are extremely excited that Mayor Adams and New York City Councilmembers have approved an on-time and fiscally sound budget specifically allocating 2 billion dollars of additional investment toward affordable housing for New Yorkers,” said Ericka Keller, CEO, Brisa Builders. “This sound financial commitment to quality, affordable housing will make a tremendous difference in closing the housing gap. This financial commitment should incentive New Yorkers to rally for the approval of the City of Yes initiative, which will allow for creative and strategic mechanisms to build housing quickly, efficiently and innovatively. When we stand together collectively and consciously, we say… ‘YES!’” 

“New York City’s housing crisis is crisis of availability, affordability, housing quality, and equitable access to housing opportunity, said Margy Brown, executive director, Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. “The city’s $2 billion capital investment in housing over the next two years makes meaningful progress on each of these problems. Especially exciting are the increases in funding to address the preservation needs of our aging housing stock and give tenants the opportunity to become homeowners in the buildings where they already live.”  

“The PACT Program plays a critical role in preserving New York City’s affordable housing portfolio,” said Matthew Rooney, principal, RDC Development and CEO, MDG Design & Construction; Susan Camerata, principal, RDC Development and chief financial officer, Wavecrest Management. “In partnership with NYCHA, it allows companies like RDC Development to provide comprehensive upgrades and enhanced social services to improve the quality of life for countless New Yorkers, while ensuring homes remain affordable. Thank you to Mayor Adams, NYCHA, HPD, and our countless partners across the city for continuing to invest in affordable housing and for giving us the tools to transform the lives of residents,” 

“New York City cannot solve the ongoing housing crisis without dedicating adequate financial resources to this fight,” said Rick Gropper, principal, Camber Property Group. “The newly passed FY 2025 budget does just that by providing billions of dollars in capital funding for new construction and preservation. Mayor Adams, Speaker Adams and the City Council are to be commended for recognizing the importance of housing and putting forward a blueprint to provide New Yorkers with the homes that they need.” 

“By every measure, our housing shortage is worse than ever,” said Ted Houghton, principal, Terra Linda Housing Services. “We must find a way to create more homes in our city. The $2 billion increase to the housing budget and the City of Yes initiative are two positive steps that will help increase housing production.  Thank you to Mayor Adams, the City Council and advocates for making these investments to address our housing challenges.”  

“We applaud Mayor Adams and the City Council for reaching a budget agreement that makes historic investments in preserving and building affordable housing,” said Brenda Rosen, president and CEO, Breaking Ground. “An additional $2 billion over the next two years, including $278 million for supportive housing is more than a line item — it’s a reflection of our values and commitment to addressing our housing and homelessness crisis. This is a much-needed boost for housing in New York City, and we are pleased to celebrate it with our partners at NYCHA and HPD.” 

“Today is a pivotal moment for affordable housing in New York City,” said Kieran Harrington, CEO, RiseBoro Community Partnership. “This budget ensures that RiseBoro can deliver on its goal to provide New Yorkers with affordable, high-quality housing. We’d like to thank Mayor Adams and the City Council for recognizing the need for these critical funds.” 

“Acacia Network applauds this administration’s continuous commitment to addressing New York City’s most pressing issues, including housing accessibility and affordability for the most vulnerable,” said Lymaris Albors, CEO, Acacia Network. “As a community-based, nonprofit housing developer that also provides integrated health care and social services, we truly believe that the pathway to stability starts with a stable place to live, and we are excited to continue partnering with the City of New York and HPD to ensure that the folks who have historically lived in our neighborhoods are able to lead healthy, stable lives free from the fear of displacement.” 

Photo credit: 1) Harlem Street. 2) NYCHA in Harlem. 3) Eric Adams.