Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to lower the rent for some of the poorest New Yorkers.
The mayor will announce on Tuesday that New Yorkers who are considered “extremely low-income” — no more than $50,880 for a family of four — will pay a quarter of their income on rent, down from 30%, on city-subsidized apartments.
“One of the things we’re trying to do is think about ‘affordable to whom,’” said Dina Levy, commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
The rents set at a quarter of household income will apply to HPD-financed new projects that close on their financing as of June 2026. The rental level will not apply to households that use vouchers.
The change in rent requirements in affordable apartments for the lowest-income New Yorkers comes as part of the administration’s plan to address the housing crisis, one that touches on everything from preserving existing affordable apartments, creating new ones, code enforcement and land-use changes to spur new housing.
“At a moment when working people are being pushed out of the city they built, New York cannot afford half-measures or delays,” Mamdani said in a statement. “This plan meets the housing crisis with the urgency it demands.”
200,000 Affordable Homes
The Mamdani administration has set a goal of building 200,000 affordable homes over a decade. It plans to build 8,000 new affordable apartments each year for the next two years, a 35% increase from the previous two years, according to the plan. That includes about 2,400 new apartments per year for people whose incomes fall into the 30% Area Median Income or less, and 1,600 apartments for households that earn between 31% and 50% of the AMI.
The AMI is a federal measure set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development that is based on market rents, not actual household earnings. The city creates income bands as a percentage of the AMI when it builds affordable housing and sets rents based on those income bands — typically 30% of the income.
Levy said preserving already-existing affordable housing, focusing on homeownership opportunities and leveraging construction via tax credits that don’t require capital funding will bring the city closer to the goal of 200,000 homes.
“It is a big leap toward getting to that 200,000 units,” she said. “There’s a ramp up period, so we are in the first phase of that ramp up.”
As part of the housing plan, the administration will commit to building 1,000 new senior homes per year — a 20% increase over the average in 2024 and 2025. And it will pursue a new strategy of building not just apartments solely for seniors, but inter-generational projects that mix senior housing with homes for New Yorkers of any age.
“It’s a way to produce more senior housing, particularly as the federal government has retrenched from their obligations to affordable housing,” Levy said. “Section 8 is a pretty critical component when you’re building senior housing, and because we’re not seeing expansions — and in some cases we’re actually seen retreating by the federal government — doing mixed- generational projects is a way to create more without the need to increase Section 8.”
The Mamdani administration also wants to create two new “community resilience hubs” in buildings with lots of seniors. This work would expand on a program that began using Congressional funds after Hurricane Ida in 2021 to turn two developments — in Brownsville and Coney Island — into centers that offer refuge, resources and social services in the wake of emergencies.
Doubling Homeownership Chances
Beyond affordable rentals, the new housing plan touches on several other aspects of the overall housing ecosystem in New York City.
The plan aims to double homeownership opportunities in the next two years, compared to the 2024 and 2025 average, through both new construction and converting rentals to cooperatives.
To help existing homeowners afford their homes, the administration plans to stand up a new program offering no-interest loans for up to 100 households each year to help pay their mortgage if they’re at risk of falling behind. And the city will increase the amount of loans offered for home repairs, from $60,000 to $100,000.
The housing plan indicated the Mamdani administration would pursue plans for new housing growth in neighborhoods that have not produced as much housing as others in the past and in areas with strong transit access.
The administration will initiate rezonings to change land use rules to allow for more housing development on the neighborhood scale, including in the areas just southeast of Prospect Park and in the north Bronx, as well as on a smaller scale, such as the community district level or even a collection of several blocks.
Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.
The post Mamdani to Lower Rent for Poorest New Yorkers in City-Financed Buildings appeared first on THE CITY – NYC News.
