New York Construction Report staff writer
Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a housing plan this week to build 200,000 new affordable homes, preserve 200,000 more and overhaul how housing codes are enforced.
Also, a new Construction Justice Act establishes a $40 per hour minimum wage and benefit standard for construction workers on city-financed projects and explores project labor agreements (PLAs) for targeted affordable housing developments. The administration will also establish the City’s first Mayor’s Committee on Construction Safety.
“By incorporating living wage and labor standards in his bold housing plan, Mayor Mamdani demonstrates a deep understanding of the multifaceted affordability dilemma that’s plaguing NYC,” said Mason Tenders District Council Business Manager Dave Bolger. Affordable housing must be accompanied by good jobs that pay a living wage. Jobs that “not only allow you to pay the rent, but to turn on the lights so that you can see the food on your table.”
Block by Block: The Housing Plan for a New Era is the mayor’s plan to tackle New York City’s worsening housing crisis.
Impacting the city’s entire housing policy, from new construction to tenant protections to public housing, homeownership and worker protections, the goal is to make the city more affordable for working people.
“At a moment when working people are being pushed out of the city they built, New York cannot afford half-measures or delays,” Mamdani said. “This plan meets the housing crisis with the urgency it demands.”
The plan sets the most ambitious housing production and preservation targets in modern history and includes funding to boost public housing and ensure construction workers building that housing “have good-paying, safe jobs.”
With a goal of building 200,000 new affordable homes and preserving 200,000 more, overhauling how housing codes are enforced, officials say Block by Block “meets the moment.”
A historic $22 billion capital investment in housing will happen over the next five years, paired with a land use agenda to boost housing production across the five boroughs and new financing tools to build and preserve affordable housing more quickly and efficiently.
The plan includes a major overhaul of how the city responds to code and heat complaints, including allowing tenants to schedule some HPD inspections and coordinating “roof-to-cellar” inspection days at buildings with organized tenants. The City will also launch an interagency planning effort in the Bronx to proactively address persistent issues around housing quality, public health and economic inequality in the borough.
The administration will also pursue a renewed role for NYCHA as a public developer, using new financing and development tools to bring in revenue, improve campuses and build new housing across the city.
“The Mayor’s Block by Block Housing Plan is a dynamic new approach to building and preserving more housing faster while proving that ambitious growth and strong safety standards can go hand in hand,” said Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani. “Importantly, this plan calls for a targeted code reform effort aimed at lowering construction costs and reducing development timelines, which will make a real difference in getting shovels in the ground on more residential projects citywide.
“DOB is excited to move forward and get to work.”
“The New York Building Congress and our members are ready to work with City Hall, the Council, and communities to move quickly, build boldly, and deliver the homes New Yorkers need across all five boroughs,” said Carlo A. Scissura, Esq. President & CEO, New York Building Congress.
