New York City is set to finance fewer affordable homes in the coming year, according to an analysis released this week, alarming politicians and housing advocates who worry the city is not doing enough to fight its worsening housing crisis.
They say the Adams administration should be investing much more in affordable housing as rents rise and the city struggles to shelter homeless people. An influx of migrants has made the crisis worse.
“We think it’s really critical that the mayor invest and really meet the moment,” said Rachel Fee, the executive director of the New York Housing Conference, a nonprofit group that represents the affordable housing industry.
The analysis of the city’s housing plans by the Housing Conference was released earlier this week. It estimated that a $2.1 billion capital budget for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development would finance about 10,000 affordable homes in the next fiscal year, which begins in July.
That includes new homes and preserving older affordable homes. The total would be approximately 30 percent less than the average over the past six years from 2018 to 2023, according to the Housing Conference’s analysis.
The group also pointed out that the housing funding in next year’s capital budget is about 20 percent lower than the current fiscal year, which ends in June.
City officials defended their plans, saying that capital funding for housing in the current budget was abnormally high because it also included some money rolled over from the prior year. They said the city also is pushing other ways to add homes, like major zoning changes that would remove limits on density.
Adolfo Carrión Jr., the housing commissioner, said at a hearing on Tuesday that critics should discount the spike last year. He said the city is “going to deliver affordable housing at the rates that we have been delivering consistently.”
New York City’s housing shortage is at its worst point in half a century. The number of cheap apartments available to rent — those that are less expensive than the citywide median — is basically zero, according to the most recent city survey.
The City Council and the mayor are still negotiating the budget for the next fiscal year. Members of the City Council have said they want to see more capital investment.
“It boils down to a very simple reality — New Yorkers’ No. 1 concern is housing affordability, homelessness, tackling this crisis,” Pierina Sanchez, a Bronx Democrat who chairs the housing committee on the City Council, said in an interview. “We need to make sure that the way we’re spending city funds is reflective of a city that’s trying to meet that challenge.”
Affordable housing production is slowing partly because it has become more expensive as a result of relatively high interest rates and growing labor costs. Even a consistent funding level results in fewer actual homes.
Mr. Carrión, the housing commissioner said the New York Housing Conference’s analysis was wrong and that there was “no cut.” He said critics should take a longer view and that “there is a historical trend that you’ll see that will continue.”
A City Hall spokeswoman said that the city has been “crystal clear about the dire stakes of our housing crisis” and had broken records for housing construction in the 2023 calendar year.
Sean Campion, the director of housing and economic development studies at the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan watchdog group, noted that New York City spends a lot more of its capital funds on housing than other parts of the country.
He also said that the number the Council and the mayor agree to typically changes over the course of the year.
There is always the potential to spend more, Mr. Campion said, but the city should also look at whether it is spending its money effectively.
