Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.
Photograph by Dean Moses
If elected as the following metropolis Comptroller, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine needs to transcend the fundamentals of the fiscal watchdog submit together with his personal plan to sort out town’s sprawling reasonably priced housing disaster.
Levine’s proposal, which his marketing campaign shared solely with New York News Metro forward of its Wednesday launch, would use the municipal pension fund system, which is managed by the comptroller’s workplace, to assist finance constructing and preserving as many as 75,000 reasonably priced items over the following decade.
The plan is one among many put ahead by Democratic major candidates this 12 months who’re pledging to handle a housing scarcity that has despatched rents hovering and left solely about 1.4% of flats throughout town out there.
“New York’s housing crisis is a moral and economic emergency,’ Levine said. “We cannot let our city’s working families, seniors, and municipal employees be pushed out of the very neighborhoods they help sustain. As Comptroller, I will put our pension fund to work for affordable housing, ensuring that thousands of New Yorkers can finally access the housing they need and deserve.”
Views of the Gowanus neighborhood, the place dozens of huge reasonably priced housing development tasks alongside the Gowanus Canal on Dec. 24, 2024 in Brooklyn.Photograph by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis by way of Getty Photographs
The Manhattan beep’s four-part plan is constructed on establishing what he has dubbed the “NYC Affordability Fund,” which might be run by means of town pension methods’ already current Economically Focused Investments fund.
The ETI makes up 2% of town pension funds’ investments, however in response to Levine’s marketing campaign, solely about half of the fund has truly been allotted. That leaves roughly $2.5 billion remaining unused.
Levine’s proposed new fund would primarily create a automobile for permitting builders to faucet these {dollars} to finance their reasonably priced housing tasks, which might pace up the speed of growth, Levine’s marketing campaign says. The fund is exclusive as a result of it will enable builders to transform the debt they take out into fairness in a constructing as soon as it’s accomplished.
“Across New York City, there are thousands of homes waiting to be built — the plans are approved, but developers lack the financing to get it done,” Levine mentioned. “The NYC Affordability Fund unlocks those dollars for us to invest directly in creating and preserving up to 75,000 affordable homes.”
In response to his marketing campaign, the brand new fund can be complimented by the second a part of Levine’s plan. That piece of the proposal requires altering inner comptroller workplace coverage to reclassify reasonably priced housing as a “core” space of actual property funding, which might make it cheaper for builders to entry the financing.
The plan’s third part includes pushing for the state to take away a restrict on how a lot town pension funds can spend money on reasonably priced housing manufacturing. Its fourth prong envisions working with the state and federal governments to carry a cap on the federal Low-Earnings Housing Tax Credit score, which might additionally assist tasks get constructed extra rapidly.
Levine, who launched his comptroller bid final summer season, is in a good Democratic major battle with Brooklyn Metropolis Council Member Justin Brannan. Each candidates launched campaigns for the place after present metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander jumped into the race to unseat Mayor Eric Adams final 12 months.
Though the race is aggressive, Levine has emerged because the early frontrunner. He has a large checklist of endorsements from elected officers and political organizations.
Brannan has additionally acquired assist, most not too long ago from the left-leaning New York Working Households Social gathering.
Levine has additionally far outraised Brannan by unlocking almost $1.9 million in public matching funds. In response to metropolis Marketing campaign Finance Board data, he at the moment has over $2.3 million at his disposal.
