Southbridge Towers | Photo by Jonathan Tarleton

Last year’s mayoral election vaulted the growing need for new affordable housing to the center of discussion over New York City’s future, and Mayor de Blasio released an ambitious plan earlier this year, pledging to create or preserve 200,000 units in the next ten years. But public discussion of the plan thus far has almost exclusively focused on the creation of new housing rather than the preservation of existing units. In a city where land for new construction is at a premium, maintaining assets already in place is crucial. According to a Community Service Society report released in January, the city lost 385,000 units of affordable housing between 2002 and 2011, far outpacing the 165,000 units that the Bloomberg administration aimed to create and preserve. If the loss of affordable homes continues at this rate, plans for new construction will fail to replace diminishing supply, let alone meet our growing city’s demand for more affordable housing......Continue Reading

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