Cuomo Announces First 100-Days Affordable Housing Action Plan
80,000 units of affordable housing will be quickly developed or returned to the market Proposes New Financing Tools to Break the Multiyear HPD Affordable Housing Backlog; & a Plan to Get Vacant Rent Stabilized Units Back on the Market
New York, NY — Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a sweeping set of financing actions he will take in his first 100 days as Mayor to break through the multiyear backlog of affordable housing applications at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and accelerate the construction of new affordable housing across New York City.
All together, these actions will result in 80,000 new units of affordable housing being rapidly developed or returned to the market. At least 15,000 units will be made possible by increased bonding of revenues from the Battery Park City Authority, At least 15,000 units will be made possible by increasing the percentage of Economically Targeted Investments available for affordable housing from the New York City Retirement Systems, and up to 50,000 units will become available through getting vacant rent-stabilized apartments being held off the market back on the market, as well as accelerating the time it takes for New Yorkers to enter new affordable housing units under the Housing Connect program.
“New York City is in the midst of a housing crisis,” said Cuomo. “We have thousands of affordable housing projects that have submitted applications to HDC for financing but which are stuck in limbo because the city isn’t providing the capital support to make the projects feasible. My first 100 days will be about cutting through that backlog, unlocking billions in investment, getting vacant rent-stabilized apartments back on the market,and putting New Yorkers in homes.”
Between 2022 and 2024, New York City’s Housing Development Corporation provided financing for an average of fewer than 8,000 new affordable housing construction starts per year—a decline from pre-pandemic levels. The affordable housing pipeline backlog at HPD/HDC includes tens of thousands of units that at the current rate of financing would take six years to develop. Affordable housing experts estimate that at least 10,000 of these backlogged units– In addition to the typical annual flow of 8,000 new units per year – are ready to begin development in short order, but remain stalled due to lack of available capital subsidies and bureaucratic bottlenecks.
The current gridlock has contributed to a massive housing shortage in New York City with a 1.4 percent vacancy rate of all rental housing and a 1 percent vacancy rate of affordable housing, which has led to skyrocketing rents. Cuomo’s multi-pronged, realistic blueprint to jumpstart an increase of affordable housing units is in stark contrast to Zohran Mamdani’s bumper sticker housing plan to stop rent increases only for rent stabilized apartments - roughly 25 percent of all housing units - guaranteeing artificial rent hikes in market rate units. His plan is legally dubious and has proven to be counterproductive, as former Mayor Bill De Blasio’s rental freeze for three years is thought to have contributed to the city’s current housing crisis.
Multibillion-dollar Capital Boost for Affordable Housing
During the campaign, Cuomo called for a $7.5 billion increase in City capital funding over five years to support traditional affordable housing, permanent supportive housing, and both new construction and renovations on NYCHA campuses. This $7.5 billion is in addition to the $24.7 billion of funding for affordable housing included in New York City’s 10- year capital budget.
In addition to that commitment, Cuomo’s first 100-day plan will raise billions of dollars in additional and immediate capital and federal subsidies through a series of targeted financing measures designed to unlock stalled projects and leverage expanded federal subsidies for affordable housing; get tens of thousands of vacant rent-stabilized units that are being held off the market put back on the market; and accelerate getting New Yorkers into new affordable housing units by streamlining the HPD Housing Connect process which often creates a delay of one year or more.
In total, Cuomo’s first 100-day actions will result in approximately 80,000 new units of affordable housing being made available quickly over and above the current average of approximately 8000 units of affordable housing being newly developed annually. At least 15,000 of these new units over and above existing levels will be enabled by the increased capital subsidies resulting from bonding new Battery Park City Authority revenues and in the related increased flow of federal subsidies, while the balance will result from getting vacant rent-stabilized apartments back on the market and streamlining the process of actually filling new affordable housing units.
Immediate Financing Actions in the First 100 Days
1. Bonding the Battery Park City Lease Extension
Cuomo will cause New York City to bond out $1.5 billion from the September 2025 lease extension and ground rent increase between Brookfield and the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA)—a practice first pioneered by Governor Mario Cuomo in 1987 to fund affordable housing.
2. Redirecting PILOT Payments for Housing
He’ll additionally redirect the $182.5 million in FY2024 BPCA PILOT payments which are used for general New York City budget relief to the BPCA/New York City Joint Purpose Fund for affordable housing. Based on this additional revenue stream, Cuomo would cause New York City to bond out an additional $2–3 billion for immediate project financing.
The excess revenues from BPCA were always intended to be used to support affordable housing. However, almost from the beginning New York City redirected this valuable revenue stream to provide general fund budget relief. Critically, debt supported by BPCA revenues would not count against New York City’s statutory debt cap, so this strategy will increase the total amount of capital New York City can invest in affordable housing.
3. Leveraging New Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Rules
Recent changes in federal law will dramatically expand access to LIHTC financing beginning with 2026 projects:
- The “financed-by” test for private activity bonds will be permanently lowered from 50 percent to 25 percent, potentially doubling the number of units eligible for 4 percent LIHTC support annually.
- 9 percent LIHTC allocations will increase 12 percent starting in 2026, adding roughly $22 million in federal housing subsidies each year.
- When the City provides sufficient capital subsidies to support increased bonding volume, these LIHTC changes will generate approximately $750 million annually in new federal subsidies for affordable housing.
Mobilizing Pension Investment
Cuomo also reiterated his call for the New York City Retirement Systems to expand their Economically Targeted Investments (ETI)—which already dedicates 2 percent of assets to affordable housing—to 5 percent of assets, which would unlock nearly $9 billion in additional mezzanine debt capital for affordable housing.
Democratic Comptroller nominee Mark Levine has previously outlined how the current ETI policy could finance $2.5 billion in mezzanine debt to support or preserve 75,000 units—capacity that could grow substantially with the higher asset allocation to ETI that Cuomo is proposing.
Fixing Bureaucracy at HPD
In addition to expanding funding, Cuomo pledged to reform HPD’s internal processes that slow project approvals. Within his first 100 days, he will convene a working group of HPD officials and city agencies involved in housing approvals to:
- Address staffing shortages;
- Streamline overly cautious review processes that “over-engineer against risk”; and
- Eliminate unnecessary delays and costs that deter development.
“Funding alone isn’t enough if the bureaucracy can’t keep up,” Cuomo said. “We’re going to fix HPD so it works for the people who build affordable housing—not against them.”
Getting Vacant Rent Stabilized Units Back on the Market
According to the 2025 DHCR study, there were approximately 50,000 rent‑stabilized apartments vacant, yet unavailable for rent. It is widely believed that the current number of vacant rent-stabilized apartments may be as much as twice as high today than it was in the 2023 Housing Vacancy SurveyhIM, as large landlords in particular hold rent-stabilized units off the market.
Andrew Cuomo will use a combination of carrots and sticks to get these vacant rent-stabilized apartments back on the market. Carrots will include one-time subsidies for renovations when that is truly the barrier to rental (although the history of the “Unlocking Doors” program shows that one-time subsidies alone are not enough to get significant numbers of apartments back on the market) and subsidies where the stabilized rent is lower than the City’s voucher amount. The tenant will continue to pay only the rent permitted under rent stabilization Law. Guardrails will be put in place, including only making subsidies available to units that have been vacant for some time, to avoid the “moral hazard” risk of this policy.
“Sticks” will include increased transparency and targeted enforcement. Andrew Cuomo will enact a local reporting requirement that owners of rent-stabilized units that are vacant for more than 90 days need to disclose the reason for the vacancy (e.g., renovation, legal dispute, sale, etc.). Andrew Cuomo will also use the Certification of No Harassment framework more aggressively where patterns of long‑term vacancy combined with code neglect suggest harassment by attrition.
Fix the HPD Marketing Process to Get New Yorkers into Affordable Housing Quickly
Andrew Cuomo will immediately fix the broken HPD marketing process known as “Housing Connect” that results in delays of a year or more that keeps new affordable housing units vacant for a year or even more while HPD and other agencies independently confirm income eligibility by streamlining this process, Andrew Cuomo will Ensure that New Yorkers who desperately need affordable housing quickly get into new affordable units.
Cuomo, prior to being Governor and Attorney General of the State of New York, was federal housing secretary in the Clinton administration.
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