Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Hello, Brooklyn. Good morning. It is a real pleasure to be here with each and every one of you. It's a pleasure to be here among a number of leaders in our administration. We have our Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning, Leila Bozorg, who is here with us. We have our HPD commissioner, Dina Levy, who is here with us. We have Council Member Chi Ossé, who is here with us; [Brooklyn] Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who is here with us. And we also have Rev. David Brawley, Rev. Adolphus Lacey, Metro IAF, housing advocates, [and] faith leaders.
And we're all here together today for an announcement where we launch the Neighborhood Builders Fast Track. What does that mean? Because I know it doesn't explain itself. What this means is that we are creating a pre-qualified roster of developers. And in doing so, we are going to cut down on pre-development time for new projects from 18 months to 10 months. Now, when you couple that with the referendums that were passed just late last year, that means that we are cutting down on the time it takes to build affordable housing in this city by up to two and a half years.
And I say that to you in a city where we know that time is money, where we know that too many of these kinds of press conferences have then been followed by years of waiting, and New Yorkers cannot afford to wait any longer. And so, what this means, in a tangible sense, is the creation of a thousand additional affordable housing units on city-owned land across our city. Right here where we stand in this rubble will soon be a new reality.
At 784 Myrtle, we're talking about more than a hundred units. When we're speaking about Jerome Avenue in the Bronx [and] Farmers Boulevard in Queens, we're talking about together more than 300 units of housing. And it's going to be every kind of housing, because we know that the fight for stability, is not a fight that asks us to distinguish between tenants and homeowners. It's a fight that demands we take this seriously for each and every New Yorker.
So here, we will be creating new affordable apartments for New Yorkers to rent. In the Bronx and in Queens, we're going to be creating new affordable homes for New Yorkers to own. And we're talking about this because it's going to take everything to confront this housing crisis. And I speak about this because oftentimes when you ask New Yorkers about the work of government, it feels as if it is abstract. You cannot understand its impact or its absence in your own life. Today is the opposite of that. It is about taking on the crisis that is pushing New Yorkers out of this city.
And I want to ask those who are here with us today: Who here has been crushed by rents that go up year after year?
[Protester shouts at Mayor Mamdani]
Who here has considered leaving this city because of the expense that it takes to call yourself a New Yorker? And we see many here as well. Who here has looked around their block and wondered, "where have my neighbors gone year after year and neighborhoods that used to be the ones that we called home"? And [for] too many New Yorkers, what we're seeing, [has] been pushed out of this city. And we know that this is a push, that it disproportionately impacted Black New Yorkers in this city.
In the last few decades, we've seen more than 200,000 Black New Yorkers leave this city. From 2010 to 2019, we've seen the population of Black children and teenagers decline by 19 percent. These are things that are the results of the policies that either we do pursue or we refuse to. And what we do today is show a different kind of path. And so, what I want to say today, in accordance with the fact that we love [it] in New York City, you're going to hear it from everybody.
It wouldn't be our city if there wasn't somebody on the block. I want that man to be able to afford to keep living in New York City.
Because the day that I don't hear him yelling at me, it means he got priced out of this place. And I don't want that. I don't want that for him. I don't want that for anybody in this city. We need to make this a city where it's affordable enough to yell at your politicians. If it's not that city, it's not the city I want to live in. Let's be clear about it.
So, let this be a city where we have this, where we worry about, are the Knicks going to win the championship? Where we ask ourselves, why is a $9 latte $9? Let this not be a city where we ask ourselves, is government doing enough to build affordable housing as quickly as it can? Today starts to answer that final question. Thank you so much. And with that, I'm going to pass it over to our Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg.
Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg, Housing and Planning: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm really proud and excited to be here today and want to especially thank Commissioner Levy and the team at HPD for kind of coming up with our Neighborhood Builders program and getting the first three sites ready for [the] announcement that we're doing today. I don't have to tell anyone in this crowd that [the] affordable housing crisis has affected neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy the most. Without enough housing options, longtime New Yorkers are being pushed out of neighborhoods and out of New York City entirely, and we've seen how much that's particularly impacted our Black communities.
And homeownership is further and further out of reach, which is why we're trying to find more sites to build not only rental housing but homeownership as well. We know what we need to do to turn the tide on this issue. Building much more affordable housing, including affordable home ownership opportunities, is the solution. And our administration has been clear that housing is at the center of this affordability agenda. Not only do we need to build more affordable housing, but we [also] need to make sure that every neighborhood is doing its part, and we need to be delivering housing at the urgency and pace that the crisis requires.
And that's exactly what our team is doing, using every tool to deliver housing across the city faster. Last month we kicked off our first-ever Expedited Land Use Review Procedure project in the Bronx to get approvals done at a faster pace. We recently published rules so that later this year we can have the affordable housing fast track come into effect. And now with the Neighborhood Builders program, we're going to help HPD move affordable housing proposals much faster, and with Neighborhood Builders, M/WBEs, and nonprofits that have an impact in the communities that they've been working in and living in.
With Neighborhood Builders and ELURP together, as the mayor said, we're going to be able to cut the pre-development process down by more than two years. This is just one component of the work we're doing to deliver more housing faster. Later this spring we're going to release recommendations from our SPEED Task Force, which has brought a group of experts together to figure out how we can get people into housing faster, not just built faster. We're also reviewing all city-owned sites across the city and in partnership with so many here to make sure that every opportunity on public sites we're actually using [is] for affordable housing.
This work is of course not easy, and we're committed to getting it done. And it's so critical that we have partners and allies like so many of you here, including especially Metro IAF and EBC, who have been amazing partners in helping us identify and move sites. And I know you all will continue to push us to do more, faster, and better.
Soon we're not only going to be developing this list of pre-qualified partners, but we're going to be building hundreds of affordable homes on lots like the ones we're standing on today. So now I'm happy to introduce our council member, Chi Ossé, who's been an incredibly strong voice in the fight for more affordable housing in this neighborhood and across the city.
Council Member Chi Ossé: Good morning, Bed-Stuy. Good morning, Bed-Stuy. I first want to address the fact that this plot of land that we're standing on was a part of the Bed-Stuy Housing Plan. And that Bed-Stuy Housing Plan was established in 2019. That's a lot of years ago. In 2019, the mayor was still in his twenties. In 2019, I was still almost a teenager. That's too much time that has gone by without activating and building much needed affordable housing here in Bed-Stuy. Think about how many of our neighbors, our Black neighbors, have been displaced from this community without building affordable housing. And that's why I'm so proud to stand alongside this administration [in] advocating and pushing and fast-tracking the much-needed housing that we need, not only here in Bed-Stuy but across the five boroughs. New York faces a dire housing shortage. Record low vacancy rates continue to push rents through the roofs. I know it, and you all know it too.
More housing needs to be built in every single neighborhood to relieve this crisis and give New Yorkers some breathing room. Whenever possible, affordable housing developments should be promoted, and the Neighborhood Builders Program is yet another tool to accelerate the future of affordable housing here in New York City. I look forward to working - we can clap that up. I look forward to working with Mayor Mamdani on this initiative to deliver urgently needed affordable housing. And I know that the mayor is not just taking this issue seriously.
I know we also need to be advocating and pushing and keeping our homeowners within this community as well. And I know that he has been taking leadership and ensuring that our homeowners within Black Brooklyn are protected as well. Since taking office, I've made one priority clear: build more housing and build more affordable housing to keep our neighbors here. The inclusion of 784 to 800 Myrtle Avenue in this district is an honor and a recognition of Bed-Stuy's need for deeply affordable homes so longtime residents and low-income New Yorkers can continue to contribute to our shared Brooklyn heritage.
I'm proud to have approved thousands of units of housing spanning deeply affordable, middle- income and supportive housing that meet the diverse needs of my constituents in Bed-Stuy. So, I want to thank you all for coming out here today for your advocacy and pushing for affordable housing. I want to thank this administration for taking this seriously and for moving with the urgency that we need and keeping us in our homes and in our communities. Thank you very much.
Deputy Mayor Bozorg: We're going to now hear from a longtime advocate and leader in this community, Reverend Adolphus Lacey.
Rev. Dr. Adolphus Lacey, Pastor, Bethany Baptist Church in Bedford Stuyvesant and Co-Chair of East Brooklyn Congregations (EBC): Good morning, everyone. We are certainly in this season that I am a Christian. And so, we're about to approach our holy season where we experience miracles. But miracles always come in different places. And so, what I think about is Taoism and the Chinese proverb that says that "if you want to begin a journey of a thousand miles, it begins with a single step." And so, we celebrate our mayor for this opportunity of beginning this step of affordable housing and New York City. Can we celebrate our mayor?
I am just so glad that out of all the places he could have started, he started in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Many of us walked to come here. And that's the point. We are tired of going to the outer boroughs. We want some stuff built in our community. And you made it happen. And so, we appreciate you for that moment, even in this season, particularly when we say why Bedford-Stuyvesant is that when you look at the over 200,000 African Americans that left over the last decade, 10 percent of them came from Bedford-Stuyvesant. It affects our community. It affects the quality of life that we're able to have to be able to go forward.
And in this moment, to be able to say that we are building here in our neighborhood with a shorter time frame, because the challenge has always been by the time you build, you might have to sell. But underneath this administration, we're building right now. And therefore, we have hope. So, again, we want to thank the mayor and his administration for the opportunity to be able to partner together to bring together, watch this, affordable, affordable housing. Can you say that with me? Affordable, affordable housing. Thank you all.
Deputy Mayor Bozorg: Thank you, Reverend. We're now going to hear from Reverend David Brawley.
Rev. Dr. David K. Brawley, Pastor, St. Paul Community Baptist Church in East New York and Co-Chair of Metro IAF: Again, my name is the Reverend David K. Brawley. I'm the pastor of the St. Paul Community Baptist Church in the East New York section of Brooklyn, [and] co-chair EBC, Metro IAF. Thank you, Mayor Mamdani, for showing us what is possible. Metro [IAF] called upon you to do what others said would be impossible: end the affordability crisis, the affordable housing crisis. To end this crisis, we all know what it's going to take. It's going to take sites, staffing and subsidies.
Metro IAF brought you some sites to look at, over a thousand. Your staff, under the leadership of Deputy Mayor Bozorg, are quickly and thoroughly reviewing every single site. Thank you, Mayor Mamdani, for working to bring city-owned land back to life. Today is a down payment on an urgent moment. Mayor Mamdani, you demonstrated what leaders do in crisis. They act, they streamline processes and they expedite. They just simply cut the red tape.
Announcements, they are signals of hope, but a ribbon-cutting, well, a ribbon-cutting means homes for New Yorkers. We look forward to coming back to this site, [so] that we might be able to welcome families to this new development. Thank you so much, Mayor Mamdani. Thank you. But I want to tell you something, Mayor. Metro IAF is here. I said Metro IAF is here.
And we will continue to show up again, and again, and again, and again. We're not going to stop. Metro IAF will stand with you, and we will continue to fight together. We will fight for affordability. We will fight to maximize density. We will fight to expand affordable housing in every single borough. We will fight to ensure that all New Yorkers can stay in the city that we all love. We're not leaving. We're not leaving. We're not leaving. We belong. We shall not be moved.
Mayor Mamdani: You know, some of my favorite songs begin with the word "Metro." And now I'm realizing that some of my favorite moments as a mayor also begin with that same word. So, I think that we are ready to take some questions.
Question: There [was] reporting in City and State this morning that suggested that your new alliance with Chi Ossé was to help repair a relationship with Black homeowners. Is that something you think you need to do?
Mayor Mamdani: I want to make something clear that: Council Member Ossé and I share a politics that has lasted for years [on] how we can uplift working people in this city. And that is critically important in a city that has become the most expensive in the United States of America. And what is a beautiful thing about the commitment to uplifting working people is that, you know, it has to be done across the city and has to also be done with a dedication to tenants, to homeowners, to everybody who calls the city home.
I'm thankful to have the Council member here. And I'm thankful, frankly, for the growing coalition that we've seen, whether Metro IAF, faith leaders, elected officials, all about stability. And I think it's only fitting that today's announcement is in one part about apartments that are affordable enough to rent and homes that are affordable enough to own. We don't need to choose anymore in the manner that we've been told we have to. And I appreciate the kind of leadership that has brought that to a reality.
Question: This is on housing. So, what made your administration unable to come to an agreement on the CityFHEPS program? And do you think criticism against former Mayor Eric Adams was wrong, considering that your team is now making the same argument that his team made in court? Thank you.
Mayor Mamdani: So, we came into this administration inheriting a generational fiscal crisis, the likes of which we hadn't seen since 2008. And frankly, this even dwarfed that, as when we came into office, we saw it was at least $12 billion. Now, thanks to the hard work, both within City government, also in partnership with the state, we were able to bring that $12 billion down to $5.4 billion. Now, we're talking about a program that at its current level is growing at about 4 to 5 percent per month.
If the city were to drop its appeal, we are speaking about an expansion that would then cost over $4 billion in the next few years alone. I am deeply committed to ending the homelessness crisis in the city. I'm appreciative of the fact that that is a commitment shared by many New Yorkers, elected officials, and beyond. And also, I'm committed to doing so in a manner that is sustainable for both the medium and the long term. We continue to have those conversations with the Council about how we can chart exactly that course.
Question: [Inaudible] Do you feel like you're walking back [inaudible]?
Mayor Mamdani: I've said time and again that what I would like to do is take every action possible to end the homelessness crisis. I also have to be honest with New Yorkers that while we all predicted that it would be a difficult fiscal situation that we would find in January, there are very few who believe that it would be at the scale that we have found. This is a fiscal crisis that has been entirely created within City government as opposed to one that can be blamed on external factors as we've seen in 2008.
Question: With the savings plan that you announced - $1.7 billion - what does that do to your desire to go into the reserves, the Rainy Day Fund, and the third credit rating agency giving the city a negative outlook? Does that change how you're going to approach your next budget proposals?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I think that outlooks are premature at this time given that we are still in the process of state budget negotiations, and I'm encouraged by the manner of those negotiations. And I'll just take us through. When we came into office, we assessed at least a $12 billion fiscal deficit. Part of what brought that 12 to 7 [billion] was the directive that we laid out for city agencies to find $1.7 billion in savings.
We directed city agencies to do these through the identification of chief savings officers in every single agency and department. And so that $1.7 billion in savings is already built into how we get down to the $5.4 billion, and we're confident of being able to deliver exactly that.
Question: Budget question. Have you heard back? I think there was a deadline this month for your chief savings officers. Have you heard back on what they found? And given that you just updated your budget proposals this morning with the press release, does this eliminate your plan for hiking the property tax?
Mayor Mamdani: So, the chief savings officers were directed to provide us with reports by the 20th, which they did so. And so, we are in the process of going through those reports, and we've shared publicly a number of the recommendations they put forward that we've already approved, and we're confident in continuing that process. And when it comes to the property taxes, we laid clearly that on February 17th, the date of the preliminary budget, that should be a prospect of last resort.
The path that we should pursue here in our city to bridge this fiscal deficit is one that should be done by raising taxes on the wealthiest and the most profitable corporations and ending the gap that has long been the nature of our relationship - ending the drain, rather, that has long been the nature of our relationship between the city and the state. I'm encouraged by the conversations that we're having, and we will continue to have those conversations for the next few weeks, and then we'll be putting forward our executive budget with the requisite updates soon to come.
Question: [Inaudible.]
Mayor Mamdani: The property tax has always been something that we did not want to pursue. We laid it [out] clearly that this was a last resort. We have continued to treat it like a last resort. And what we've said to everyone, whether publicly or privately, is we want to pursue a path that doesn't put this fiscal deficit on the backs of working-class New Yorkers who had nothing to do with generating this.
Question: Two state budget questions, just very quick. First, is the governor proposing changes to the state's climate law, the CLCPA? Do you have any position, [whether you] support or oppose the changes she's put forward? And then also, there's a budget proposal around no tax on tips to exempt personal income taxes up to $25,000 [of] tipped income. Do you have any position on that?
Mayor Mamdani: I think the right position to take is to make it easier for working-class New Yorkers to be able to afford to live in our city. And I am someone who has long been supportive of all of the measures that we take to tackle the climate crisis, and that includes the ones that we passed into law in the past years.
Question: [Inaudible.]
Mayor Mamdani: I'm someone who supported the CLCPA in bringing it into existence.
Question: When you released the preliminary budget, you said that the reports laid out by the chief savings officers would be made public. Can you talk about why they have not been made public and if you're planning to do so?
Mayor Mamdani: So, we're currently going through those reports. They've put forward $1.7 billion in savings, and we are going through all of the different recommendations from the agencies and the departments to approve the number of those recommendations. We've shared some of those approvals, but that will, at the time when we release this budget, it will all be public.
Question: Can you tell us a little bit about what you hope to get out of your meeting with John Catsimatidis today? I'm curious. Do you plan to talk about what Sid Rosenberg said about you on the radio? Is there a business interest? And just also a little bit of your thinking into not attending the Tax the Rich rally this weekend.
Mayor Mamdani: So, I'll start first. It has long been an idea that the two of us would actually sit down and have a conversation. Sometimes I think the conversation might veer to the fact that he went to Brooklyn Tech and I went to Bronx Science. I think that the conversation may also extend into that about grocery stores and about the importance of making the city a more affordable one. And also finding a way to be able to talk to each other as New Yorkers loving the same city while having fiscal and policy disagreements. And I think it's going to take all of us. It's going to take the man on the street that's yelling at me. It's going to take everyone who's here in support of this proposal. We don't want a city where anyone is made to feel as if they don't belong here.
Question: [Inaudible.]
Mayor Mamdani: So, the conversations that we're having with the governor and with the state partners are ones that are productive. And we're looking forward to continuing those conversations. And we appreciate the fact that there are so many New Yorkers who share the same opinions as we do about the necessity of putting the city back on firm financial footing and doing so by actually confronting a structural crisis with structural solutions.
I've long been clear that I believe that includes taxing the wealthiest New Yorkers, the most profitable corporations, as well as ensuring that the city's relationship with the state is a fairer one than it has been in the past. Thank you so much.
