Mayor's Cuts Will Hurt Affordable Housing, Lawmakers Argue

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — A loss of 20,000 new and preserved affordable housing units.

About 9,200 construction jobs gone out of 14,500 fewer jobs overall.

Hundreds of millions that never will go toward small businesses.

Nearly $1 billion lost for infrastructure projects in a crumbling city.

All that will happen if Mayor Bill de Blasio's proposed $2.3 billion in capital budget cuts goes through — a massive "capital mistake," argued city Council Members Brad Lander, Vanessa Gibson and Robert Cornegy on Monday.

Those cuts' savings won't even show up until the 2027 fiscal budget, Lander said.

"But they have devastating consequences," he said.

De Blasio proposed the cuts amid a burgeoning $9 billion shortfall from the coronavirus crisis. But a study released by Lander and Gibson made the case that cuts made to the capital budget — which is separate from the city's annual budget — won't affect that shortfall.

Instead, they'll inflict long-term damage to housing programs for years to come, the study argues.

The city lawmakers held a news conference in the shadow of massive demonstrations, including in New York City, over the killing of George Floyd.

Lander, Gibson and Cornegy all acknowledged that systemic racial inequities not only affect policing, but also pervade housing. The cuts would be especially devastating now, with the combined effects of the coronavirus pandemic and systemic racism coming to the fore, they argued.

They released a letter joining the New York Housing Conference's opposition to the cuts. It can be read here.