Assessing de Blasio’s Housing Legacy: Why Hasn’t the “Most Ambitious Affordable Housing Program” Produced a More Affordable City?

Report | Jan. 2021

Assessing de Blasio’s Housing Legacy: Why Hasn’t the “Most Ambitious Affordable Housing Program” Produced a More Affordable City?

Samuel Stein

Summary:

The de Blasio administration came into office promising to address the deep inequalities that plagued New York City, with a distinct emphasis on housing affordability. Seven years later, thanks in large part to aggressive and persistent organizing and advocacy, some important strides have been made. Despite these gains, housing in New York City has remained deeply unaffordable, speculation and segregation have persisted, and homelessness has reached record highs, all before the Covid-19 pandemic sent the city into a deep recession and exacerbated all the city’s pre-existing racial and economic inequities. While the causes for New York’s housing crisis are bigger than any one mayor, the de Blasio administration’s approach to housing ensured that many of the system’s most pernicious features would not only endure but expand.

This report looks back at de Blasio’s housing legacy so that we may think creatively and act boldly toward an equitable recovery.

Issues: Affordable Housing

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