Election Date: November 6, 2001
Major Party Candidates:
Democrat Mark Green vs. Republican Michael Bloomberg

The following are the mayoral candidate's positions on affordable housing, both prior to and after September 11. The information is taken from the ANHD Weekly Reader.

Democrat Mark Green
(Post September 11)
Mark Green says that he remains committed to affordable housing issues despite the drastic changes in New York City's social and economic priorities that were created by the September 11 tragedy at the World Trade Center. While acknowledging that security concerns and economic redevelopment have vaulted to the top of New York City's list of priorities, Green has promised to attend to the city's affordable housing needs as well. In a statement to WNBC aired before the September 25 primary, Green said that, "while we may soon be at war, we cannot ignore our homefront: the people and neighborhoods of our City:" Green listed affordable housing construction among the challenges, "that existed before the World Trade Center attack, and that remain despite these new threats we now face."

(Pre-September 11)
Public Advocate Mark Green has promised to convene an affordable housing summit in the first weeks of his administration to bring housing partners together to find a way to construct 50,000 new units over 5 years. The summit would seek agreement on the types, locations and financing for new housing. Green himself has not committed to specific income targets within his affordable housing plan although his proposed summit would provide a venue to do so. Community-based activists have told ANHD, Inc. that they would look forward to the opportunity to participate in a citywide housing summit. However, there is also some concern that such a summit would be unnecessary and should not substitute for mayoral commitment. Past research and meetings have already built a consensus within the affordable housing community that 100,000 new units need to be built over the next 10 years, with specific targets already set for low-income development.

Green has also pledged to establish a New York City Housing Trust Fund with the goal of dedicating $1 billion of new City money to housing. Green says his trust fund would be financed with Battery Park City revenues and other possible dedicated funding streams. Green says he would try to bring more State and Federal dollars into city housing programs and work with foundations and corporations to marshal private money for nonprofit agencies engaged in housing production and preservation. He has promised to expand the Neighborhood Preservation Consultants and Community Consultants programs, and his campaign recently told ANHD that he "wants not-for-profits and community-based organizations to play important roles in both preservation and new construction." Green has promised to be actively involved in the implementation of his housing plan. Citing former Mayor Koch as his model, he says he would convene regular meetings to ensure that appointees and bureaucracies are kept on track and that red tape does not prevent housing goals from being met. Green promised to commit $1.2 billion in new city capital funds and to seek additional state and federal money for housing at a September 1 news conference at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.

Republican Mike Bloomberg
(Post September 11)
Republican Michael Bloomberg, the candidate who was most reluctant to invest city money in affordable housing during the primary campaign, now suggests that major housing construction projects are needed to help the city recover from the September 11 attack. According to his campaign, Bloomberg views affordable housing for all workers as an integral part of any plan to retain businesses in the city end suggests that the current crisis "exacerbates the need" for affordable housing in New York. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Bloomberg proposed a "huge housing construction project" and said that, "you can make the case that we need housing more than we need office space," for the city's economic redevelopment.

(Pre-September 11)
Mike Bloomberg's housing platform includes interesting proposals for expanding housing preservation, but offers little public support for affordable housing construction. Most significantly, Bloomberg proposes to expand the Third Party Transfer program by allowing the city to foreclose on buildings solely because of serious code violations. Currently the city can only take over control of these buildings if Iandlords are also in serious tax arrears. Bloomberg also promises to augment HPD code enforcement staff so that agency can perform cyclical inspections, rather than only responding to complaints. Bloomberg pledges to appoint new Deputy Mayor whose sole responsibility would be to solve the city's housing shortage.

The candidate says that New York City needs at least 100,000 new housing units and that he would work to make that construction cheaper and easier. Bloomberg's platform emphasizes the use of zoning changes to encourage construction. Like other candidates, Bloomberg says he would increase the amount of land open to residential use and clean up brownfields to make them available for housing construction. His platform promises to place affordable housing construction at the center of a new push for waterfront development. However, Bloomberg is the only major candidate to oppose the direct investment of city capital funds into housing, although he does suggest that tax incentives should be used to encourage affordable housing construction. He has not made a budget commitment for his housing plan, although his platform states that Battery Park City revenues should be designated for affordable housing. Bloomberg's housing proposal includes no income targets and no specific commitment to low-income housing construction. He has offered no comments or commitments on the role of non-profit community-based organizations in housing development.