NYC HITS MILESTONE, BUILDING 30,000 AFFORDABLE HOMES IN 2020 DESPITE PANDEMIC

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City has managed to build an 30,000 additional affordable homes, says Mayor de Blasio.

The city constructed nearly 30,000 affordable homes in 2020 — and it’s on track to build another 25,000 units this year despite COVID-19 budget constraints, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday. The new units are part of the city’s larger goal of providing 300,000 affordable homes by 2026.

“This has been a crisis within the crisis,” de Blasio said, referring to the jobs and homes New Yorkers have lost due to coronavirus.

Housing Preservation Department Commissioner Louise Carroll mentioned that of the houses built last year, over 65 percent will go to families of three with incomes below $52,000 per annum. To date, her agency has facilitated the construction of nearly 178,000 homes for 445,000 residents.

Harona Fall, a taxi driver and a father of three who came to New York from Senegal in 1991, moved into an affordable unit in the Bronx last year.

“Everything I do is for my kids,” said Fall, who was invited by the city to speak at the press conference. “Not having to worry much about rent…[made] it easy for me to help pay for college and give my kids a better life.”

With the City still working on vaccine roll-outs, developing environmental initiatives, improving fairness and justice within existing systems, and more generally tackling the socio-economic ramifications of COVID-19.