Dive Brief:
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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is allocating $1 billion to repair leaking roofs in 700 Housing Authority buildings over 10 years, according to a preliminary 2018 city budget released yesterday, ABC News reported.
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The $84 billion proposed budget also includes plans to upgrade deteriorating city streets and add funding to a police department training center. The roof fix intends to save money down the road by staving off mold and other issues, News 12 Brooklyn reported.
- But opponents of the spend have said that the amount proposed to revamp the crumbling roofs is insufficient and that at least $17 billion is required to completely repair the buildings.
Dive Insight:
De Blasio’s proposal is part of his broader attempt to revitalize the city’s disintegrating public housing stock. The city announced earlier this month that it has added or renovated more than 21,000 units of low- and middle-income housing in 2016 — the most in a single year since 1989.
There is a pressing need for more affordable housing in New York, as in other major U.S. metros, as prices shoot higher while inventory fails to keep up with rising demand. Real estate website Zillow recently estimated that a 20% down payment on a median-priced home in the greater New York City metro area requires 114% of the average annual income of a typical homebuyer there.
Other efforts are underway to pump up affordable housing levels in the region. Last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo revived plans for the state’s 421-a tax break with new legislation, titled Affordable New York, that aims to encourage developers to include low-income housing units in their projects.
In December, the New York City Council approved four low- and middle-income housing developments in East Harlem and the Bronx that will bring more than 2,000 affordable and semi-affordable housing units online.
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