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Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Announces Major Progress Helping New Yorkers Afford Their Homes and Neighborhoods

January 12, 2017

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Danny, thank you very much. I want to thank you for all that you have done as a leader of this community and of the People’s Firehouse. And there’s an amazing history – Danny was modest about it. People’s Firehouse for a lot of us is one of the great examples for decades, going back years and years ago – 1980s, I think originally. The People’s Firehouse was a community standing up and saying we need to make sure we can take care of our own people. That’s the history. It’s extraordinary history here. People in this community believed that they had to watch out for themselves and their neighbors.

And Danny talked about what’s happened in Williamsburg in recent years when Williamsburg was struggling. All of the community activists who joined together to create the People’s Firehouse believed they could save Williamsburg. And a lot of people in the room today may have been around for those times, and I know a number of you weren’t. It was a very, very tough time in this city. And neighborhoods were experiencing huge disinvestment and so many questions about their future. People were fleeing. And a group of people decided to stand and fight – make sure that they could protect their communities. And all of the people who created the People’s Firehouse were part of that tradition.

Then you fast forward to what Danny referenced more recently – all those who were those working people who built the neighborhood, including these wonderful seniors here behind us. They found the world turned very suddenly. And gentrification occurred, and it became harder and harder to afford their own neighborhood. Think about that for a moment – both the intensity of that change, but also think about the irony. Not long ago, in Williamsburg and in neighborhoods all over the city, people were leaving in droves, and those who were staying were fighting against crime and disinvestment and dealing with vacant lots and boarded-up store fronts. Only to find that after all their hard work to bring the community back, they started to get priced out of their own community.

We do not accept that reality. We believe the City of New York can thank and reward those who stood and fought for their community – that it is their city. It is still their city. And our job is to make it affordable for every kind of New Yorker – for working people, for middle class people, for lower-income people – every kind of New Yorker because the magic of New York City is every kind of people in one place. That’s the secret formula.

So here, the People’s Firehouse has partnered with us, and we have a chance to do the very thing that will keep New York New York, which is to create affordable housing, particularly for our seniors who carry with them all of the great history and traditions of this city.

We know that housing is the number one expense in people’s lives. If you can lighten the burden with housing, then everything else is possible. If people can afford housing, they can afford to live here. If they can’t afford housing, the ballgame is over. So what’s happening here at Jarka Hall is so important because for these seniors – for these seniors, the question will now be answered. They will know they have a place they can afford to live for the long term. And they can enjoy this neighborhood that they did so much to protect. I want to thank all of them and say to these good seniors – thank you for standing by Williamsburg and standing by your city in good times and in bad. Let’s give them a round of applause.

[Applause]

And we’re here today to talk not only about the affordable apartments for seniors at Jarka Hall, but to tell you about the achievement this city has made when it comes to affordable housing. We’re now at the very beginning of a new year. And we can report to you that as of the end of 2016, we have built and protected the most affordable apartments in a quarter-century in this city – the most affordable apartments built or protected in any one year in a quarter-century. And that is 21,900 affordable apartments for New Yorkers who need them. We are very proud that that number means 62,000 families will have a place to live – a lot of them in the apartments that have been preserved. 62,000 families for whom the question of affordability is now answered – for whom they know this is their city, and it will still be their city for a long time to come. That’s what it means in human terms.

In terms of what this government is doing, it also means something very important – to the people of New York City and to the taxpayers of New York City. It means that our vision for 200,000 affordable apartments is both on budget and ahead of schedule, and I want to thank all of my colleagues who are with me here today and all the people who work for them who have achieved this extraordinary goal.

Let me acknowledge the people who are around me here. Some you’re going to here from in a few moments, so I will acknowledge them when they speak, but I want to thank the architect of so much of this success – our Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen – thank you. I want to thank the President of the Housing Development Corporation, Eric Enderlin – thank you so much. And two people are here from the City Planning Department – they’ve done extraordinary work facilitating so much of our affordable housing initiatives – of course the Chair Carl Weisbrod and Executive Director Purnima Kapur. We thank you both for your great work.

And I want to just take a brief moment to thank Carl. Carl, for three years you have helped to drive so much of what this administration believes in, and so much that is changing the lives of New Yorkers. If you had just shown up for these three years and never done anything before for New York City, it would have been enough. But as a lot of people in this room know, Carl caught the bug for public service back during the Lindsay administration – never got over it – and has managed to be a key player in this city – an incredible, positive force in this city from the 1960s all the way to today. And I don’t think anyone has ever done more in terms of public service across administrations, and facing challenge after challenge, and has left such a big mark on the physical reality of this city – no one has done more than Carl Weisbrod. Let’s thank him.

[Applause]

My goal today was to make Carl Weisbrod blush. I hope I got there. I hope I got there.

[Laughter]

So, just a couple more points. We understand – Danny made the point that change is obviously inevitable. Gentrification is a double-edged sword – I’ve said that many times. It comes with very positive and very challenging elements. But the question I always get from people – how are we going to keep this place affordable? How – people literally say to me all the time – how am I going to stay here? How am I going to stay in neighborhood? How am I going to stay in my city? There is an urgent, urgent tone in people’s voice when they raise it to me. And what they need to know is that yes, of course there will be changes. Of course there will be development. They need to know that it will be fair. They need to know it will be equitable. They need to know that it will be of, and by, and for the people of the community. And so much of what we’ve done – partnering with great neighborhood organizations – is to make development work for the people. And that’s why Mandatory Inclusionary Housing was so important – to say the rules will now be changed in favor of the people. The message behind us today – this is still your city – reflects the answer that people keep seeking. They need to know that it’s not just powerful forces beyond them shaping things and leaving them out. They need to know that they are stakeholders. And everything we are doing with our affordable housing plan, our approach to development is to return power to the people and return the priority to the needs of the people at the neighborhood level.

So my message to all New Yorkers today is this still is your city. And you’re going to see this affordable housing plan ensure for half a million New Yorkers that it will be their city for decades and decades to come.

Overall, 62,506 apartments have been preserved or built since the affordable housing plan was begun in 2014. Again, that number is 62,506 apartments. A big focus in this initiative has been on seniors with fixed incomes, as are going to be all the apartments at Jarka Hall. Another focus has been on folks at the lowest income levels. I can report to you now that 28 percent of these apartments to date are for very low and extremely low-income New Yorkers – 28 percent of all of the apartments that have been preserved or built for folks at the lowest income levels. That’s well over 17,000 apartments already, and many more to come.

But another part of the plan is for hard-working folks who are struggling to make ends to meet even though one or both members of the family have full-time jobs. And that includes so many of the people we depend on every day – nurses and first responders and people who make this city work in so many ways – they need affordable housing too. And that’s a crucial part of this plan.

At Jarka Hall, $19 million was spent to preserve 63 apartments. They are all affordable for seniors – all 63 – they will be affordable for the next quarter-century. And the average rent here will be no more – I should not say the average – the rent will be no more than $1,000 a month – no more than $1,000 a month at Jarka Hall. For some seniors – even less – compared to the average rent in Williamsburg which nowadays is about $3,000 a month. At Jarka Hall, the rents will not go up, but the quality of apartments will because a lot of renovation has been done to make sure our seniors have the things they need to live a good life.

So, yes, our city will keep growing. Yes, development will keep happening. But we are determined to make sure it is development that benefits those who have built our city and kept it great.

A few words in Spanish –

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish.]

With that, I want to welcome someone who deserves tremendous credit. She has guided this affordable housing plan from day one and has been an extraordinary and noble taskmaster to making sure that her agency and all her colleague agencies actually achieve these goals. And anyone in government who can say that they brought in their initiative ahead of schedule and under budget deserves the greatest praise of the people – our Housing Commissioner Vicki Been.

[Applause]

Commissioner Vicki Been, Housing Preservation and Development: Thank you Mr. Mayor, and thank you for your commitment to these issues, which is what makes us all able to do this. You know, as I was thinking about [inaudible] I remembered back almost three decades ago when I came out to this neighborhood on a number of occasions to work with the local residents to use evolving environmental justice and fair share principals to try to deal with the load of pollution and waste facilities, and the other things that marked the neighborhood at that time. And as I would sit in those meetings and I would listen to the Polish and the Spanish and the sprinkling of all different languages – and I would watch the people who had worked all day and then come to those meetings at night with their determination and their absolute commitment to making the neighborhood better; to giving their kids a better shot at life in their neighborhood, and to making better lives for themselves – it was in a word, awesome. I mean, it was just really amazing to see the activism in the neighborhood and the people who were determined to make this neighborhood better. And as we’ve watched the neighborhood evolve, in the ways that Danny so eloquently described, I have often wondered, ‘well what happened to those people?’ Were they able to remain in the neighborhood that they were working so hard to change? And the tenants that are with us here today and the tenants who Danny mentioned are really a testament to the power of affordable housing to stabilize neighborhoods and to allow the people who want to remain in the place that they’ve worked so hard to make the kind of home that they want to stay even as the neighborhood changes.

We know that where you live matters; tour opportunities, your sense of self, and your outlook on the world all are critically wrapped up in the – in where you live and the kinds of opportunities that that place provides; and sometimes making the kind of life that you want to live means leaving your neighborhood and going someplace else. For somebody like me, grew up in a small town in Colorado where opportunities were few and constraints were many; coming to a place like New York changing it up completely changed my life and allowed me to do so much of what  I’ve done. But sometimes making the life that you want means staying put; it means remaining near friends, it means keeping your kids in the school that they have gone to, staying near your job, staying near your doctors and your social network. And that is why it is so critical to us to both build new and to preserve homes in every neighborhood in the City. All New Yorkers should be able to live – to move to the neighborhoods that they believe will be a better place for them and they should also be able to stay put in a neighborhood they love when they believe that that is the best course for them. And both choices should come with the understanding that the City is going to work hard to make every neighborhood in this city – all neighborhoods in the City diverse places of incredible opportunity, and where people can thrive.

Also, affordable housing doesn’t just make a difference in the lives of the tenants like we have here with us today. It defines who we are as a city. And affordable housing allows us to retain and attract the rich mosaic of people whose wide-ranging backgrounds, and cultures, and religions, and points and view, and experiences provide the incredible richness of ideas and culture and innovations that give this city what makes it so special. It gives it its spunk, its spirit, its vitality, its energy. And that is really why we started three years ago with this outsized ambition to produce and preserve enough affordable housing in combination with tenant protections and so much of the other things that this city is doing to set the City firmly on the side of being a city for all; and not let it become a gated community for the rich. And that is what we’ve done. And that meant that we had to reach New Yorkers at a far broader range of incomes than ever before, and to make sure that all of our neighborhoods rise together and are inclusive places of possibility and opportunity.

And I’m so happy to be here to say that that is exactly what we have been doing. We’ve been delivering at a record scale – the 62,506 affordable homes that we’ve created or preserved are going to be homes and are homes for so many New Yorkers who will breathe a little easier because we’ve addressed the biggest challenge that they face, which is finding housing to stay in and in the neighborhoods that they want to be in or they want to stay in.

And even more critically we’ve really, I think changed the parade gm over the last three years. When growth occurs there will be affordable housing, period – end of story – thanks to Carl and his team and so many of our partners. Where we grow, there will be affordable housing. And where we can improve our zoning codes to make buildings and neighborhoods not only better, but more affordable to meet the needs – the varied needs of our seniors, of our changing retail, of our neighborhoods it will be done; ZQA, thanks again to Carl and his team, done. So, it hasn’t been easy. It hasn’t been smooth. There’s been lots of controversy and debate along the way, but that is because we proposed really fundamental changes and communities have sometimes understandably reacted with fear and distrust and we’ve had to work through that and we have. We forged a path forward. It’s a massive enterprise, involving not just an unparalleled investment of resources that this mayor put in, but the creative thinking and commitment of our partners at all levels of government and across the affordable housing community.

And it has really taken an uncountable number of late nights and hard work and back and forth and God knows how many tress killed for the documents necessary to do all of this, but it has really taken a village. And I want to thank my HPD team and our sister agency HDC. Our Deputy Commissioner of Development Molly Park, who had to fill very big shoes when Eric Enderlin went to HDC; joined in October, hit the ground running and literally has not missed a beat. And she has worked alongside Kim Darga, Jessica Katz, John Garrity, Louise Carroll, Miriam Colon, and Lisa Talma; our neighborhood strategies and planning team led by Dan Hernandez – Daniel Hernandez, our brilliant legal team led by Matt Shafit and Ken Kurland, and all of the rest of the brain trust  who never stops – everyday are thinking about how can we do this better, how can we do this cheaper, how can we do this faster because we’ve got to get this housing into the hands of the people who need it. And it is an all-star team. They work so hard. They think so hard. They are true public servants who care about the people and their lives who we are providing housing for. So, I am enormously proud of what we have accomplished. I am enormously thankful to the team, to all of our partners and as we see new challenges on the horizon, which there certainly are, that just steals our reserve to do even more to make sure our city remains a city for all. For the New Yorkers who are struggling so hard to get by with unimaginable tenacity and resolve, to the once solid middle class that also serves as the base of our city. We have to be a city for all. And I think that this is a great step to get there.

Mayor: Amen. Thank you very much, Vicki, well said.

Well, we have – let’s give her a round of applause.

[Applause]

Mayor: We have a very special guest with us and he was special before his new appointment, but now he is very special –

[Laughter]

Mayor: – because if you know what matters to New York City, obviously housing one of the number one issues, and a lot of important deskins are made in Albany and so the Chair of the Housing Committee in the Assembly is a crucial, crucial figure in terms of the work we’re doing. And as a Brooklynite I am very proud of the fact that the new chair is going to be a great chair and someone who is going to stand up affordable housing in New York City. It’s my pleasure to welcome Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz.

[Applause]

[…]

Mayor: Amen, music to my ears – thank you.

[Laughter]

[Applause]

Mayor: They chose the right man for the job.

[Laughter]

Mayor: Excellent. Now – a man who has also stood up for this city and for affordable housing, and represents this district – and also the dean of the New York City delegation in the State Assembly – Assemblyman Joe Lentol.

[Applause]

[…]

Mayor: Thank you very much – very much appreciated. Thank you, Joe and thank you for your support and I give both you and Stephen Levin that persistence prize.

[Laughter]

Mayor: Now, I want to turn to the Chairman of subcommittee on zoning and franchising in the Council. He has been one of the leaders in the City Council in the effort to create affordable housing all over the City and his district is also an epitome of a place that needs it. And he has fought for the people of his district in the process as well, Councilman Donovan Richards.

[…]

Mayor: Thank you very much, Donovan. Very much appreciated.

[Applause]

Mayor: Finally, I want to call up the homeboy here.

[Laughter]

Mayor: The Councilman who represents this district and has again has been a partner throughout in all of the efforts to create affordable housing, Councilman Steve Levin.

[Applause]

[…]

Mayor: I want to pledge before everyone, Steve, we will be outrageously aggressive.

[Laughter]

Mayor: So, I want to just give – before we turn to questions we’re going to take questions on this plan and everything affordable housing. I want to turn back to Danny because he wants acknowledge some of his team who worked so hard; so, Danny over to you.

[…]

Mayor: Thank you very much. Alright, questions – Courtney.

Question: Mr. Mayor, [inaudible] what is the discrepancy there and does it have anything to do potentially with [inaudible] 421-a?

Mayor: Let me start and then Alicia or Vicki may want to jump in. I’m a glass half full kind of guy. What I like beyond the fact that it’s ahead of schedule and under budget – 67 percent being preservation means that affordable housing is getting into people’s hands most quickly. The preservation piece of this equation was always the dominant piece. It is also the faster piece. A lot of times we are literally preserving people in place in their apartment or rehabbing them and having them come right back in. So, I think it is very healthy that piece is moving so aggressively because every single human being we get their apartment preserved for them that is a right now thing. That’s one more family that’s not experiencing the affordable housing crisis anymore. I do think the absence of 421-a has been unhelpful to say the least. I don’t think it has been critical in the sense of a lot of great work continues to be done, and a lot was already in the pipeline, but we need it and I am increasingly optimistic that it will be done soon. There are still challenges, but I am increasingly optimistic it will be done soon. So, I think that was a factor, but I don’t believe it was a particularly overwhelming factor in the equation, but let me let the experts speak to it.

Deputy Mayor Glen: Let me also just say, Courtney, it is a ten-year plan and there will be ups and downs. And new construction does take longer than preservation. And it depends upon so many of the things that we’ve put in place. So, we now have MIH and just since MIH was approved last spring we’ve got 1,500 permanently affordable new construction units coming online. We’ve got another 2,500 affordable units coming online just through MIH – just since the spring. The truth is that these three years we’ve produced more new construction than in any other period that there are records for the affordable housing program. So, we’ve shown that we can do it. We know we can do it and we got a lot coming online that you’re going to see in the years to come.

Mayor: Questions. Okay, in the back.

Question: Commissioner Alicia Glen, in 2015 you gave an interview talking about how [inaudible] change isn’t bad per say. I want to know if in the last two years working in City government if your perspective has changed on that at all having come from the private sector?

Deputy Mayor Glen: Well, first of all, I’d say that I have worked in the public sector before I was in the private sector –

Mayor: She was a – she started out as a legal aid attorney.

Deputy Mayor Glen: But also as you may know from my bio I have worked for Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins where the Mayor and I, literally, crossed paths on our way through to work one day. So, I have actually worked in the public sector before. I think what I said in fact very consistent with what Commissioner Been said, which is that there is an obviously natural tendency for people to want to stay and live in the neighborhoods and the towns that many people grew up in. And I think that is a true statement and we should do everything we can to provide the opportunity for people, but I think it is also true that not everybody has a right to live exactly on the block that they lived on. And those two things are not inconsistent with each other. You want to think about these holistically as neighborhoods. I live in the same zip code I was born in and I have seen the evolution of my own neighborhood over the past, dear I say now, 50 years. But I think that our primary goal is to make sure that particularly with neighborhoods that are rapidly changing, where prices are really skyrocketing, that the folks who did stay in those neighborhood, who were part of the years where there was significant disinvestment and many of us stayed and we sent our children to those public schools etcetera, that those folks are our primary concern; that if you were part of the solution you get to be part of the benefits of that solution. And I think my comments are not inconsistent. And I don’t think anybody thinks there is a right to live on the block you were born in, but I do think collectively we have an obligation to make sure that people who have been part of these neighborhoods for decades have the opportunity to stay there and particularly the folks who were there for the tough years. And that’s why the senior housing emphasis is so incredibly important.

Mayor: Okay, questions.

Yes.

Question: Mr. Mayor, and other officials, is it safe to say that at this point that rezoning other than East New York are moving significantly slower pace than you thought they would? And are you concerned at all about spacing those neighborhood and community rezonings as you now enter year four and there’s only been one so far.

Mayor: The bible teaches us to everything there is a season.

[Laughter]

Mayor: So – I just came from the clergy breakfast, so forgive me.

[Laughter]

Mayor: The – look, first of all, the ones coming up next, East Harlem and North Shore, Staten Island both look very promising. So – and there is a lot more behind them. I think it is fair to say these things take serious time – serious time commitments. And one of the things that Carl and [inaudible] have done a great job of is getting it right and working very closely with councilmembers on what will work. But the rezonings are part of the puzzle and so if you say – look, is every rezoning moving on the optimal pace? No. Some go faster, some go slower, but that’s also not unexpected on one level because you have to get it right and you have to listen to the stakeholders and we really believe that a great rezoning is when in the end people feel really satisfied with the outcome. And we do not, I’m going to be very blunt about this – especially siting here with my esteemed colleagues Lentol and Levin – we are not interested in some of the bait-and-switch approaches to rezonings of the past such as the infamous Greenpoint/Williamsburg rezoning of 2005 where things like the affordable housing commitments somehow accidently were not kept. We believe that if we make a commitment it has got to be ironclad. So everything we did East New York is going to happen as stipulated. Everything we’re going to do in East Harlem and North Shore, Staten Island is going to go as stipulated. Sometimes that does take more time; there is no question about it.

The other piece to the equation that I’d say is we look across the whole playing field. Rezonings are important, but they are not numerically the most important part of the equation. The preservation – in terms of the affordable housing plan – preservation is the motherlode and then we’re creating affordable housing in a lot of ways that don’t have to do with rezonings, but we definitely need rezonings to be a part of the bigger package. But remember, that’s the affordable housing plan. That’s the 500,000 people who are reached through that. But you’ve got to also add into the equation the two million rent stabilized folks who have gotten rent freeze; you have to add into the equation the thousands of people who have not been evicted because of legal services. You have to add into the equation the 400,000 people in public housing who we are protecting and improving the physical plant of. All of that is part of the macro affordable housing vision. So, we’re going to try our [inaudible] to get each rezoning to move as aggressively as possible, but we’re not going to rush a rezoning if we think it is not going to be as good as it could be.

Want to add?

New York State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol: I can add.

Mayor: Please, you’re in the middle of all this.

Assemblyman Lentol: Far Rockaways in the mix too. And I’ll say, I think one thing that I have noticed through all of these processes is definitely the community engagement piece, which is definitely critical through all of this. In one sense we want to get rezonings done really fast, but you don’t want communities to feel like you’re just shoving it down their throat, right. So, listening to stakeholders is definitely critical. And I have to say that we have been going through a community engagement process for over a year in Far Rockaway and we’re finally ready to move into the [inaudible] soon. And it’s been a really – real big help in terms of addressing a lot of the needs that the community has spoken about; whether its density parking, transportation, all of these different factors. So, we would always take that over speed because you want to get it right and make sure that councilmembers, most importantly, are comfortable as we move through these [inaudible].

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Again, I’ll speak as the lament and Alicia may want to chime in. No, I think Flushing is in the mix. I think there were some concerns that came up that had to be addressed. I think to some extent some of that was maybe a little exaggerated, but there is still real work that can be done there.

Deputy Mayor Glen: I would just say that – right now it’s not the priority and it is not actively, but we are going to reconsider based on some of the comments that we received from the community and the councilman.

Mayor: Over here – please.

Assemblyman Lentol:  I think you’re asking a very good question, and I wanted to amplify what the Mayor said about it because it is crucial for neighborhoods to understand that the prior administration made a lot of promises in this neighborhood that weren’t kept at the 2005 rezoning. And the Mayor knows it – and one of the linchpins of that agreement, actually the linchpin was a park. And that administration left office and left this community without a park after rezoning was finished. And we had to fight for another ten years and it took his Mayor – another mayor – who didn’t have to fulfill the commitment made by a prior administration in all likelihood, but he did. And so, I am sure that since he lived up to that commitment we can rely on this mayor to live up to the commitment of rezoning in other neighborhoods.

[Applause]

Mayor: Thank you very much, Joe. Yes.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: That’s a great question and I appreciate it very, very much because this is a conversation we need to have in this city. And it’s a big challenging conversation. Everything related to development and gentrification and rising cost and how we should handle ourselves – and just a growing city; a city well on its way to nine million people. This is what we should be talking about every day. So, look, there is a fork in the road. I spoke about this at a town hall meeting out in East New York after the rezoning. There is a fork in the road. We have a chosen another path decisively. We believe the facts support this choice, but we also welcome a discussion and we welcome people to present any counter facts because we all should work on this together. Here’s how I would describe the fork in the road; there is a strategy you could choose, which is essentially a status quo strategy, where you say we’re not going to do rezonings because we fear any intensification of development and we’d rather leave the status quo in place even though we won’t get new affordable housing built, we still think it nets out better. You can make that argument, right? Because the cost won’t go up in the neighborhood or there won’t be this place and etcetera. Honestly, if I believed that is what really happened I might find that an appealing option, but I – everything I do I do because of the conversations I have had with every day New Yorkers, because of what I have seen in neighborhoods. And as a Brooklynite I tell the story of what I saw happen in neighborhoods where there were no rezonings – the story of Bushwick, the story of Bed-Stuy, the story of Prospect Heights I can go through many, many examples. And what – even to the point when I was a councilman in my neighborhood in Brooklyn and we had to make a decision about Atlantic Yards my – and everyone knows that project has not completed anywhere near the timeline we wanted it to, but the original logic still holds. I saw my own neighborhood go from, in the same timeframe we’re talking about with [inaudible]. I was in Park Slope in 1980s as a college intern and people were leaving and there were vacate lots and there were boarded up storefronts, the whole nine yards. And then by the time Chirlane and I moved there in 1992, the neighborhood has stabilized and by the time we bought our first house in 1998 it was getting pricey. And by the time we bought our current house in 2000 it was becoming absolutely unaffordable. We feel if we hadn’t bought our house we would not have been able to stay in the neighborhood. So, the reason I tell you that story is I saw with my own eyes how rapidly – with no rezoning whatsoever – a neighborhood could change and there could be intense displacement and that proceeded to happen all over Brooklyn; and again, the two particularly powerful examples, Bushwick and Bed-Stuy to me. So, I came to a conclusion that – and I am critical of the impact of market forces, I have been open about it. I have real questions about the problems of the free enterprise system. Market forces left without regulation in this city as the popularity of this city has grown, as the economy has strengthen, as it has become safer those market forces will continuously displace people. [Inaudible] buy out lots of people legally and then as you have seen, there will be some people who very inappropriately try to use illegal means. And in the past those illegal means were not inhibited properly. But any way you slice it there will be a huge amount of displacement and pricing out if there is no government intervention.

We made the decision that government intervention maximizes our chance of controlling the situation more favorably. One, we’re talking about 25 percent or 30 percent under MIH, affordable housing. On top of that, a lot of other things we’re doing to create and preserve affordable housing. So, we take a very interventionist view. We’re going to go in and take every power we have to maximize the creation and preservation of affordable housing in place and to ensure that development must include affordable housing, but also that those neighborhoods, many long suffering neighborhoods – East New York is a great example – will get things that neighborhood residents have needed for a long time; schools, parks, more jobs etcetera. The problem with the counter theory is – and if you don’t have rezonings you also miss all of those benefits that neighborhoods needed. Now, I’m sorry to be wordy, but I think it is such an important topic. There are some who almost come to the point of saying leave the neighborhood the way it is even if the neighborhood still has not been treated fairly. And this is a philosophical problem for me. East New York was not treated fairly historically. It didn’t have it share of any of the things we valued; jobs, the best educational opportunities, it wasn’t safe enough, and it didn’t have enough amenities. I’m not comfortable leaving it the way it is. So – and I think the Rockaways, I don’t even need Donavan to be here to say that one of the number one examples in the history of New York City of inequity.

So, the Rockaways pre-Sandy was in an unacceptable situation, Sandy made it worse. So, you could say, ‘well, let’s not develop in the Rockaways so that people can afford to be there, but the problem is; one, I don’t think it is going to be as simple as that. And two, a lot of people won’t get permanent quality affordable housing; and then three, all of those wrongs that need to be righted in the Rockaways; all of the community benefits they should have gotten decades ago won’t come because we know rezonings are one of the fastest most effective ways to bring things into a community. Look at Bushwick Inlet Park as an example. But for a rezoning there would not be a 28-acre park. So, that’s – again, forgive the wordiness, but you’re asking such an essential question. I fall down on the side of we must – the government must regulate the situation aggressively [inaudible]. We must be aggressive. If I had more powers I would regulate it even more aggressively. If I had the power, some of these shiny glass and steel buildings would not be going up all over New York City, but the fact is the alternative of standing back to me ultimately fails. I want to perfect the intervention. I want to perfect what we can do to steer neighborhoods towards affordability and to ensure the maximum number of community residents can stay there.

Please.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: It’s a great question again. I appreciate it. I’ll again, I’m probably frustrating my more [inaudible] colleagues here because –

[Laughter]

Mayor:  – I do not have their experience or their degrees, but that won’t stop me.

[Laughter]

Mayor: Look, it’s a great question. Let me say two things, one, I was with people who fought for inclusionary – mandatory inclusionary. I had – in the previous administration I one day innocently called up the deputy mayor who used to have Alicia’s role and said in 2004 to the Park Slope rezoning in the early 2000s; I said wouldn’t it be great if we started dong mandatory inclusionary zoning. I got a less than friendly reception to that idea.

[Laughter]

And everyone remembered the previous administration wouldn’t go near it. We see these things in stages. Now having instituted in the biggest city in the country a mandatory requirement for affordability is a huge step. It is not static, if we find ways to deepen it and improve upon it you know we’re going to grab those. We will be very aggressive. But I think what Alicia would say, if she were here –

[Laughter]

Mayor: – is that – oh, Alicia, she would say it so well.

[Laughter]

Mayor: She would say this to you; that we have to figure out the sweet spot that would actually lead to the buildings being built. This is a very interesting equation. Again, I am critical of the free enterprise system, but I do understand there are certain operating realities and if the financing doesn’t work in the eyes of the people who have to build the building, they won’t build the building. If they don’t build the building, we don’t get the affordable housing. So, if we thought we could have gone a lot farther on those requirements and actually gotten buildings built, we undoubtedly would have done it. I assure you a lot of people thought 25 percent and 30 percent was very, very high and stretching. I think the point to remember also is that each development is an opportunity to deepen the plan, deepen the deal. Again, nothing is static. Whatever we entrepreneurially see an opportunity to go farther, we’re going to do it. So, I am not trying to suggest to you that everything I have said is a perfect theory of the case. I am saying this is this working model we believe is the best chance – gives us the best chance at success.

Mayor: I am saying this is the working model we believe is the best chance – gives us the best chance at success. But we would welcome along the way people showing us if there’s a way to go even farther. At least now, not only is our foot in the door, we have changed the fundamental rules of the game. Now that Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning is here, you got a whole different paradigm you’re working with. Let’s see if we can take that paradigm even farther under the right conditions. Do either one of you want to add?

Unknown: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Thank you.

Unknown: You said it all.

Mayor: They’re supposed to say – one of them is supposed to say, I don’t understand a word he just said.

Question: Affordable housing is something you talked about yesterday with President-elect Trump, and if not, what did you two discuss, please?

[Laughter]

Mayor: That was a very good, very good pull-in, but I am going to dignify it because I think – two things. One, because this is going to be a big topic of discussion – it was not yesterday. But it is, and I think it’s fair for me to say that upfront. Conversation yesterday was exactly what Eric put out. It was a brief conversation, but explicitly to say – I think his message to his message to New York City was – we hear you on the impact of the security costs, and let’s work together on this issue. No guarantee of an outcome because that has to be done by the Congress. But I appreciate it, of course. On behalf of all New Yorkers, I appreciated him reaching out and saying that. But it was a brief conversation.

But I will say to you that one of the biggest conversations we’re going to have with this administration is going to be about housing. I reached out to Secretary – [inaudible] Secretary-designate Carson. I’ve asked him to come here and visit and let him see some of what we’re doing on affordable housing. But one of the things I’m going to talk a lot about to members of the Trump administration is that if they want a vibrant economy and they want cities to work – it runs through affordable housing. And there’s so much of what could happen in the cross fire that could really hurt us. Things like the Section 8 program, and the support for public housing are in great danger if a Republican Congress follows through on its historic desire to cut those things back. And if there are tax cuts that reduce revenue, where is that revenue loss going to be made up? I fear it is going to be made up on affordable housing programs. So I assure you in subsequent conversations with him and with many other members of his team, this will be a central issue. Sally?

Question: If I could get an on-topic, but I just wanted to follow-up. Did Ben Carson get back to you?

Mayor: Yes, we spoke. I’ve said that publicly. We spoke. We had a very good conversation. Brief again, but good. And I welcomed him. He was very receptive. He made clear he was going to be visiting cities around the country. And I told him that affordable housing in this city was essential to everything we’re doing and that the federal support through HUD was something that you know many, many hundreds of thousands of people depend on, especially our public housing residents. And I wanted him to see firsthand, and he was very receptive.

Question: Today’s announcement – as you know, there are people – you know, New Yorkers, not just politicians and activists – but residents who feel that no matter how much affordable housing you build, it’s not affordable enough for them. You know they can’t – they just can’t afford those AMIs. And I know your argument has been it’s better to have these sort of mixed-income neighborhoods. But since there are all these federal and state conditions that are going to affect your plan going forward, do you ever consider just taking the money you have control over and building more units, maybe not in middle-income neighborhoods, but just giving more housing to very poor people, even in Brownsville?

Mayor: Look, I want to – I want to argue the bigger case. Maybe at this point, Alicia and Vicki will get a chance to jump in. The – again, so let me offer you a vision of three million people. This is – this is something I keep trying to tease out. There’s 8.5 million of us. I want to talk about 3 million basically within that 8.5 million. Two million-plus in rent stabilized housing; 400,000 in public housing; 500,000 who will be reached by this plan by 2025; and thousands, and that number I think is going to end up being in the tens of thousands who will not be evicted because of the anti-eviction legal services. But rounding off liberally here – 3 million people. When I talk about is a New York City for all, a New York City where everyone has a chance to have a shot and to be here, that 3 million is the essence of things. Do we want to go farther than that? Of course. But, in that 3 million people are a lot of very low-income people.

Mayor: And I think the fact of the matter is that we use so many tools to reach very low-income people and it’s a passion for all of us, but we also know that a city is made up of every kind of people. And if it was just that the folks at the lowest income levels were struggling, but everyone else who was working class and middle class was doing just fine – that would be a different discussion. That would really be a different discussion. Because then we’d say – okay, we have only one real problem to address, let’s put everything into that one real problem. Boy are we in the opposite place, especially since the Recession, and with the incredible increase in the price of housing at the same time as the Recession, which is another thing I think should be talked about a lot more. How do you have a national Recession – a huge number of people end up economically insecure or even in poverty – don’t come back from it, don’t really economically recover – and then the price of housing skyrockets throughout the whole thing, literally. That’s a – that’s a perfect storm.

So given that reality, we have to make sure working class people, and middle class people can live in this city and stay in this city. And they need help to do it. It’s not going to happen without us for a lot of people. And I think that’s a just thing. I think they’re all stakeholders, they’re all citizens, they’re all part of the equation. So that’s how we’re proceeding to do it.

That being said, as I said today, 28 percent of what has been done so far – 28 percent of the 62,000 apartments are for very low and extremely low-income New Yorkers. And I think that shows a lot of commitment. What have I missed?

Deputy Mayor Glen: I would just say that I want to respectful of the Mayor’s time, and we’re going to have time afterwards with some reporters to delve more deeply into this. So if there’s anything else for the Mayor, I think we should do that.

Unknown: Anything else for the Mayor before we –

Mayor: Please, Erin.

Question: Question – you know there is an official definition of affordable housing – 30 percent of your income – but I think when most people hear the term, they probably think of it more colloquially. And you know there have been a number of cases – you know in East Harlem for instance – affordable housing apartments that cost over $3,000, which is well more than the median rent in the neighborhood; and the Atlantic Yards project, studios that are affordable that actually rent for a few dollars more than the market-rate ones in that same project. So I guess I would ask – what to you is the benefit of having those types of apartments be in the program at all? And how do you – apart from the official, numerical definition – do you think – how do you define what you can really consider affordable?

Mayor: Well I would say this – and again, I’ll start, and Alicia and Vicki can chime in. The – first of all I think the big difference between a market and something done by the government is the government has an obligation to provide a guarantee to people. And the market has no such obligation.

So I think what you’re saying, first of all, is pretty exceptional in the scheme of things, and it doesn’t refer to the vast majority of the affordable housing plan. You’re talking about a relatively few units within the plan. But more to the point – whatever is done there is going to be locked in and guaranteed for the long term for those families. The market does not offer any such guarantee. So what you’re describing today in five years might be a very different situation where the affordable housing unit is in a very different and lower price range compared to what the market around it is doing.

But the bottom-line is we’re trying for people who are poor, for people who are working class, for people who are middle class – they all need to be able to live here. And I think we can all agree that after the 60s, 70s, 80s in this city where middle-class people left in droves, that that’s when the city is in danger, when the middle class can’t be here stably.  We’ve got to make sure this is a city still for the middle class. Vicki made the point – it’s one of the number one animating values of this administration – if the only people who can live here increasingly are well-off people, that’s not going to work. There has to be range of people in this city. There has to be every kind of person, every kind of income represented.

And we believe for a lot of middle class people if we’re not in this equation, they’re not going to be here. I mean I’ve talked to so many – the classic couple – you know a teacher and firefighter, whatever who – you know, I remember the day – it was actually a nurse and firefighter. They were parents whose sons played on the same travel baseball team as Dante – nurse and a firefighter, and the nurse told me in frustration one day in the bleachers – she said we’ve looked all over Brooklyn, and we can’t find a home we can afford in Brooklyn. This was maybe seven years ago, let’s say. And she said it with shock. She was from Brooklyn. And she said it with shock – that like they were a two-income family, and they were good incomes, but they could not find a home they could afford in Brooklyn. Well I think those folks deserve a chance to be here too. So that’s the theory of the case.

But I also would say, and now they’re going to give you a fact – the core of the affordable housing plan reaches working people and let’s give a sense of the income band because there’s a lot of mystery around this stuff – where so much of the middle of our plan reaches. And don’t say AMI, say human being numbers about income.

Unknown: Human capital numbers.

Commissioner Been: I have been chastised enough times in public on that issue, so I will – in a loving way, yes. So, I mean what we have done is for example more than half of our production so far has been for families of three – for families of three making from $40,000 to $65,000. Eleven percent of what we’ve produced so far – I’m sorry, six percent of what we’ve produced so far has been for families – families of three again, making again between $65,000 and $97,000.

Mayor: So stay on the first one. Give that first one again. I want to –

Commissioner Been: $40,000 – let’s call it $41,000 to $65,000.

Mayor: Okay, $41,000 to $65,000, family of three – and that is how much? That’s over half.

Commissioner Been: That is 52 percent of what we’ve done so far.

Mayor: That core of this. And you can look at the original plan laid out in May of 2014. Those are hard-working people, struggling to make ends meet. That is a classic working person’s income in New York City today, including obviously even two-family incomes. And those are the folks that we very, very much believe need to have a place in this city.

So the question of what is affordable – this is like, I get the question all the time – it’s a very fair question. Affordable is – it’s a question for every family, what their situation is, what they can afford. We’re trying to match it with a whole range of families. You’re right at that 30 percent rule. And you should talk about this because people don’t understand this. Thirty percent is sort of the gold standard of affordability. We talk about how we do that with preservation for example. But if the thing – if I was able to say to you – affordable means every apartment in New York City is $1,000 a month and all, that would be a beautiful world. It would be an impossible world, but it would be a beautiful world. The real world is affordable is trying to find that sweet spot for a family that they can still afford to be here, and that’s very different depending on what family you’re dealing with. But talk about how the 30 percent rule works.

Commissioner Been: So, the 30 percent rule is – you would pay 30 percent of your income and many – remember, that many people are also using vouchers or other kinds of rental assistance. So, 30 percent of their income will actually be less than the income restrictions that we talk about. But the other point that I think is really critical to make here is that in many cases the apartments that are at the highest end of the spectrum – and we’ve tried very hard in our buildings to have a spectrum because all of the research shows that mixed-income buildings are stronger buildings over the long term. But at the high-end, they’re also helping to cross-subsidize those at the very low-end, and that’s what makes it possible in many cases for us to do that.

Mayor: Explain that for us laymen.

Commissioner Been: Pardon?

Mayor: Cross – explain how cross subsidies work.

Commissioner Been: So the people who – the rents that the people are paying at the very top of that distribution are helping to pay their – pay – allow us to target at incomes where the rents that people pay do not pay enough to keep the building afloat, right? So it’s that mix of incomes that makes the buildings work.

Mayor: Okay, last call, yes?

Question: [Inaudible] make the buildings stronger?

Commissioner Been: Why are they stronger? Because they are more resilient when – I mean, the research shows they are more resilient when something happens in terms of a downturn in the market. They’re more resilient because that provide that diversity, and those different kinds of experiences, and different kinds of life choices, and different kinds of educational backgrounds, etcetera, that just tend to make for a more vibrant, healthier, and more energetic system.

Mayor: On the point about the financial stability. I think what it is – this is again, I have spent years trying to understand this stuff, and I’m still working on it. So a building is its own ecosystem with its own financial reality, and we have to remember the finances have to add up each year. And when you have this cross-subsidy point, it’s so important. If you said – again, I would fully understand if someone said – why can’t you put up a lot of buildings, again with $1,000 a month rent, and no matter how low-income someone is, everyone could live there, and we’d all be great? You have to pay for that. So, if we had limitless public resources, that would be called public housing, right? We would be building all sorts of public housing, as was done from Fiorello on. But that ended a long time ago because of the financial reality. It became overwhelming.

So, we try to, as intelligently as possible, use the private market dynamics to our favor – channel them with regulation to get the most we can out of the private market, and create a financially viable building that’s going to be there long term. If we say to these seniors – we’re giving you a quarter-century guarantee, we damn well better be able to back it up – that the finances are going to work, year-in and year-out. So, in the case of a typical building with a mix of incomes, the think the way I’d say it – if you have a mix of some higher income and lower income wealth, for the higher income, you’re subsidizing for the low-income, your [inaudible] rising more. Regardless of what’s going on in your economic reality outside, that gives you the most chance that that individual building is going to work for the long haul. Imagine when it doesn’t – and we’ve had to go in and save some deals from the past – you’ve heard about the Mitchell Llama buildings and everything else. When the financing falls apart, the government either has to come in and pay a lot more to fix it or the building goes private. So, again, this is – I’m the ultimate layman here and the experts will tell me when I say something stupid – but my layman’s explanation is, we’re a little bit trying to make up for some of the sins of the past by being more honest about what it’s going to take to sustain these deals for the long term and to make sure they don’t end up just doubling right back on the taxpayer and needing a lot more subsidy. 

Last call – wait, a little but more. I know I’m supposed to be doing other things, but it’s such a good conversation, Eric. 

[Laugher]

Question: I’d like to begin by thanking you for saving my life – and when I say that I mean that quite literally. I’m in a 421-a building –

Mayor: I’m sorry, I’m going to ask you one thing –

Question: Yes?

Mayor: Are you a member of the media?

Question: No.

Mayor: Okay, I will talk to you after because the press conference is for media, but I would happily see you in a moment. Okay, thank you. I’m happy that worked. 

Okay – last call – media questions. I see two – and then we’ll close it down. Go ahead, guys. 

Unknown: Left – right there.

Question: Mr. Mayor –

Mayor: My left, right there.

[Laughter]

Question: Mr. Mayor, your press office tells me –

Mayor: Louder.

Question: The press office tells me that 800 of this year’s 22,000 [inaudible] were 421-a backed. That doesn’t sound like that many to me, so I’m wondering if it’s really worth [inaudible]?

Mayor: I will preface by saying, remember, the 421-a that we believe in no longer subsidizes luxury condos, provides a lot higher percentage of affordability, is a much better deal for the taxpayer. That’s the 421-a I think, in essence, we’re going to get, and I think that will help the equation, but it’s a very fair question. If it’s been so little so far, how much does 421-a matter at this point?

Commissioner Been: So, what you’re seeing in any buildings that are getting 421-a are the old 421-a. Those are buildings that are, you know, came online a while ago but are now, you know, coming into our pipeline – the affordability is. So, you know, the thing that we want to emphasize is what the Mayor said – that the 421-a reforms that we worked so hard to get passed in Albany took out luxury condos, required larger percentages of affordability, required deeper affordability and a range of affordability, and, you know, really got a much better deal for the taxpayer’s money, right? And that’s what we’re hoping will come back in this legislative session. 

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Yeah, but you’re saying – are you saying, is it – that an indicator that we could always do that? Is that your question? 

Question: I’m just wondering – I was very surprised that there’s only 800 of the 22,000 units, so it makes wonder how that [inaudible] is needed.

Commissioner Been: But again – for example, last year, we had several thousands, I think – more than 3,000 actually that were coming [inaudible]. So, you know, we have managed because I have an incredible team and we’ve worked very hard to bring those in. But over a 10-year period, do we need a good, efficient 421-a? Yes – it will bring units in and it will bring them in, in some of the most expensive neighborhoods where it would be impossible for us to buy land at the prices that they are. So, yes, we need it, but we need it to be efficient, we need to get enough affordability, and we need to get deep enough and a broad enough range of affordability to make it worth our tax dollars to do that. 

Mayor: Last call – there you go. 

Question Did Sunnyside Yards projects go live? Or have you moved that to the back burner because it’s too costly?

Mayor: I wouldn’t say we moved it to the back burner because it’s too costly, I’d say, right now, there would have to be more work done to get it where we want it to be. There obviously were real differences with the State of New York. We think our original proposal made a lot of sense and could be very good for everyone – we think it could be good for the State; we think it could be good for Amtrak; we think it could be good for the City. We also know we could create a huge amount of affordable housing. Look, and real neighborhood – fair neighborhood concerns have been raised about potential congestion and about amenities and transportation – things the community would need. But I think it could all be put together and be an incredible thing for the people of Queens, but we’re going to have to have, you know, more work done with the community and more work done with the State to get it to be a more immediate opportunity. 

Thank you, everyone. 

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