De Blasio plans to create 25 000 affordable apartments annually

De Blasio plans to create 25 000 affordable apartments annually

City officials plan annually to build or maintain the 25,000 affordable apartments over the next nine years to accelerate the implementation of the initiatives of mayor bill de Blasio for creating a Fund of 200 000 units of affordable housing by 2022. Now the mayor plans even more ambitious – 300 000 available units by 2026.

The city will spend approximately 150 million dollars more each year to accelerate the program, which currently includes the construction or preservation of 20 000 flats a year, adding a total of $ 1.3 billion to the plan worth $ 41 billion.

De Blasio plans to create 25 000 affordable apartments annually

The ultimate goal of the city – 300 000 affordable apartments will consist of 40% new and 60% of the «saved» apartments, which are affordable housing. In the case of saving the city plans to restrain the growth of prices for rental of such apartments, partially overlapping its value at his own expense.

De Blasio also announced the content of its new initiative — Neighborhood Pillars. It provides for the establishment of a special reconstruction Fund at $ 275 million. The mayor plans to contribute to nonprofit organizations in the purchase of abandoned urban buildings that could accrue to unscrupulous tenants. Buying property in this case will be at the expense of organizations, and housing repair the city will be paid from the Fund.

If the plan is declared by the mayor for the preservation of 25,000 affordable apartments each year, is successfully implemented, it will become the biggest in the region for affordable housing in the history of new York. Since the arrival of De Blasio to power in 2014, he managed to keep about 77 000 affordable apartments, but to the ending still far. In addition, of those apartments, only 14% were actually available to the citizens that are below the poverty line, 40% — to individuals whose income is less than half the average income in the region.

The administration of mayor argues that the accelerating pace of the creation of affordable housing caused by urgent necessity and the introduction of new rules requiring the mandatory presence of a certain number of affordable apartments in every new building. However, skeptics say that the way De Blasio is trying to attract the voters, after the election of the mayor very soon.

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