How Mamdani Plans to Solve New York's Most Pressing Problem

A housing plan called “Block by Block” aims to deliver 200,000 truly affordable homes built over ten years and preserve 200,000 affordable homes during the same period. The plan includes $5.6 billion in investment into the New York City Housing Authority, described as the largest city investment in NYCHA in decades. The approach also emphasizes tenant investment and strict code enforcement, framed as a requirement rather than an optional suggestion. Building new units is presented as a major achievement, with tens of thousands of apartments completed in a recent year. However, the plan is positioned against the challenge that supply alone has not made rents reasonable for middle- and lower-income residents.

"“We're talking about 200,000 new truly affordable homes being built over the next ten years; 200,000 affordable homes being preserved over that same period of time; an investment of $5.6 billion into the New York City Housing Authority, the largest city investment in NYCHA in decades,” he told me. “And all of this while investing in tenants across the city, ensuring that code enforcement is not seen as a suggestion, but rather a requirement. That's what tenants can expect, and they can expect it from a city government that is serious about delivering on the housing crisis.”"

"Getting 200,000 new apartments built in the next decade will be a monumental achievement; it's more than the total number of housing units in New Orleans, Cleveland, Tampa, or San Juan. Mayors Mike Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio, and Eric Adams made comparable promises, setting the city on an impressive, decades-long building spree that is often taken for granted. More than 34,000 new apartments were completed in the five boroughs in 2024 alone, according to the Furman Center at NYU, the greatest one-year total since 2010."

"“Since the early 1990s, we've built 700,000 new units of housing,” author Nicole Gelinas told me earlier this year. “700,000 new units of housing is pretty much building an entire city. That's a massive success story.”"

"But we can't build fast enough to make rents reasonable for middle- and lower-income New Yorkers through supply and demand alone. On the night before Mayor Mamdani re"

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