New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is mulling over making it mandatory for the developers to incorporate affordable and cheaper apartments if they build in newly rezoned areas of the city.
While addressing his second annual State of the City speech on Tuesday, de Blasio said the New York City will be tripling the expenses for providing legal services to the tenants to USD 36 million.
With this action, the Mayor is hoping to check the incidents of forceful eviction of older and poorer tenants by the landlords for the new ones willing to pay more.
“New York risks taking on the qualities of a gated community, a place defined by exclusivity rather than opportunity,” de Blasio said in his address at the Baruch College in Manhattan.
The liberal Democrat, whose comments were majorly dominated by the issues related to affordable housing in one of the most expensive American cities, said the 56 percent of tenants living in the city spent over 30 percent of their income over paying rents in 2014.
de Blasio criticized his predecessor Michael Bloomberg before taking office 13 months ago. He condemned Bloomberg for building a “Tale of Two Cities” separated by inequality during his 12 years in power.
According to the reports, Bloomberg had offered tax incentives to the developers for including affordable homes in their buildings. However, it was usually optional.
In 2014, de Blasio fulfilled one of his main pledges made in his campaign by introducing an ambitious expansion of pre-kindergarten (pre-K) for over 50,000 young kids.
The office of Mayor has planned various methods to lure the developers with decades-long tax breaks.
