Funding partially restored to New York City housing department after budget cuts

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to restore $466 million in funding to the city’s housing department budget after the city cut its capital budget by about $1 billion, Gothamist reports, mitigating the blow of its affordable housing efforts. 

The reversal comes after an analysis from the New York Housing Conference found that the cuts would only result in $30 million in savings in the city’s operating budget because the city’s capital budget is funded through bonds. The cuts to the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development would have also resulted in the loss of 21,000 affordable housing units, according to the organization. 

“With these restored funds,” Commissioner Louise Carroll said in a statement, “we’ll be forging ahead on the goals of Housing New York with an even sharper focus on protecting the most vulnerable among us – New Yorkers at the lowest income levels, our seniors, those experiencing homelessness – and helping make this city a more equitable place by supporting M/WBE’s and nonprofit projects as well as those in neighborhoods hit hard by COVID-19.”

The New York Housing Conference praised the development, noting that the new funding would produce about 11,000 more units of affordable housing. However, the organization is continuing to push the city to fully restore the cuts to affordable housing.