Op-Ed | Breaking housing records and giving New Yorkers a key to their future

Since day one of our administration, building housing and bringing down the cost of living has been two of our top priorities. We know that in order to make New York City the best place on the globe to raise a family, we need affordable housing across the five boroughs. We need to build the housing working people, families, immigrants, and young people need.

For the past three years we have gone to work to deliver housing for New Yorkers every day, everywhere. And last week, we announced back-to-back record-breaking calendar years producing critically needed affordable housing across the city. We have again built the most homeless units and most supportive units. We also housed our older adults by building a record number of senior units.

We have also connected a record number of New Yorkers to that housing, with HPD connecting more New Yorkers to homes than ever before in 2024. And thanks to our team at NYCHA, we have delivered more than $1.7 billion in critically needed capital repairs to our public housing sites. The New York City Department of Social Services also connected a record number of New Yorkers in shelter to subsidized permanent housing. Additionally, more than 14,600 households moved out of shelter using a variety of rental subsidies, reflecting a 24 percent increase year-over-year.

But these records are more than just numbers — they are older adults getting connected to accessible and affordable housing, formerly homeless New Yorkers being handed a key to a stable and safe apartment with a support network, and families feeling like they can afford to live in the greatest city on the globe.

A home is more than just four walls and a roof, it is the key to unlocking the American Dream. It is a path towards stability and an opportunity. In order to meet our affordable housing crisis, head on, we must continue to be bold and ambitious.

That is why in my State of the City address last month, we laid out a bold vision for our “Manhattan Plan” that will create 100,000 new homes in the borough, bringing the total number of homes in Manhattan to 1 million over the next decade.

We are also building on our “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” plan, the most pro-housing proposal in our city history that will invest billions and build 80,000 new homes over the next 15 years. With “City of Yes for Families,” we will help us build even more housing that meets the needs of families, including co-located housing with libraries and housing that is closer to public transportation.

We are building with a “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” approach. That means building housing on every block, in every neighborhood, and in every borough. We are not just breaking records when it comes to housing. Last month, we announced, for the eighth time since we entered office, that we broke the all-time high jobs record in our city. But I know the hustle in this city is real and that too many families are still struggling.

Every day we are fighting to give New Yorkers a key to their future. Together, we are going to build more affordable housing so New York remains the best place to raise a family and a place where all New Yorkers can build their American Dreams.