Bill De Blasio Says New York City Must Tackle Affordability Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, decrying the affordability crisis facing the biggest U.S. city, proposed setting aside more apartments for the poorest, legalizing basement units and allowing renters to pay security deposits in monthly installments rather than one lump sum.

In his seventh State of the City Address, de Blasio, a Democrat, said many fear the city they love is slipping away, and New York had to save itself from “the forces of greed” displacing residents and small businesses from their neighborhoods.

“Here’s what’s strange. No one wants to leave, but they are being forced out or they haven’t been displaced yet. It’s a constant fear,” De Blasio said Thursday. “It’s not that we have to fear street thugs, we have to fear bad landlords.”

Despite mandates that require developers to include affordable housing in areas rezoned for more development, stronger rent laws, rent freezes and the creation of 300,000 affordable apartments, the city has to do more to prevent residents from displacement, de Blasio said.

The city will prioritize building new homes for the poorest residents, setting aside 25% of all new city-financed homes for families making $30,000 a year, de Blasio said in a speech at the American Museum of Natural History.

Since many residents can’t afford to pay one-month’s rent and a security deposit to landlords in one lump sum, renters will have a chance to sign up for renter security insurance that allows smaller monthly payments or a smaller single upfront payment instead of a full month’s deposit. This will start with 60,000 city-financed homes. The mayor said he would pursue local and state legislation that would expand the option to New York City’s 2.2 million renters.

In addition, de Blasio said he would ask the state legislature to to pass new tenant protections for 2.5 million New Yorkers who live in 900,000 apartments without rent regulations and legalize basement apartments.

“We can’t have a city where its own people feel it’s not going to be theirs in the future,” de Blasio said.

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