Mayor Bill de Blasio's office released numbers yesterday showing new construction starts—defined as developments that have secured financing and poured a foundation—were down in FY 2016 compared to last fiscal year, dropping from 8,485 projected apartments to 6,097.
Still, city officials—including planning commissioner Carl Weisbrod, HDC president Gary Rodney and deputy mayor for housing and economic development Alicia Glen—said yesterday that the city is on track to hit its ambitious affordable housing goals, even though no viable replacement for the 421-a tax credit is on the horizon.
New construction has gone up in the months since 421-a lapsed, the New York Observer cites an HPD spokesperson as saying. A total of 23,284 units of housing deemed affordable were financed in FY 16—a figure the city says is the second-highest on record.
But 421-a only expired in January. And as experts have noted, a drought in construction will take several more quarters to really be felt.
Just this month, the developer behind the 1,700-unit Astoria Cove project in Queens, which was set to be 27% affordable, essentially said the project was DOA because of the lapse of 421-a.
“The biggest issue with 421-a being suspended is it has a tremendously negative impact on the production of rental housing in general,” Alicia told The Observer.
“So you have a continued tilting toward condo production. And that has long-term, in our view, bad impacts on New York’s economy in respect to our workforce and our ability to grow thoughtfully.” [Observer]
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