The Mayor Bill de Blasio Administration today blasted City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer for claiming that the city’s rezoning plan for East New York puts 50,000 residents at risk of displacement.
Stringer’s allegation came as part of his “detailed analysis” report released today being highly critical of de Blasio’s massive rezoning plan for East New York to stem the tide of gentrification.
“For generations, East New York has been overlooked and under-resourced by the City in schools, parks, public transit, and affordable housing,” said Stringer in issuing his report. “However, instead of strengthening the affordability of this community, the proposed rezoning would instead serve as an engine for displacement. The plan’s so-called ‘affordable’ apartments would be too expensive for more than half of current residents, and the introduction of a large number of market rate units could push even more people out of the neighborhood.”
But administration officials noted the 50,000 residents that Stringer refers to in his report as being “at risk” of displacement are residents living in unregulated housing, making them very vulnerable to the citywide march of gentrification.
“The comptroller has it completely backwards. These are families that are in danger today, because the market is already putting pressure on their rents. It’ll take enormous preservation and new affordable housing efforts to turn that tide, which is precisely what the City is working for,” wrote De Blasio Spokesperson Wiley Norvell in an email.
The administration also took issue with Stringer’s analysis that the rezoning would actually make the area less affordable to East New York’s residents, in which the Area Median Income (AMI) is $32,815. According to Stringer’s report a family of three would have to earn at least $46,620 a year for one of the “affordable” units.
Stringer’s analysis also states that the City’s plan estimates it will produce 3,447 affordable housing units in the neighborhood through a combination of mandatory inclusionary zoning and a series of additional subsidies, but that only half of these units (1,724) would be set aside for the neighborhood’s current residents.
But Administration officials said Stringer’s AMI analysis is skewered because it ignores housing the city is committed to build on publicly-owned land for families making $20,000 or $25,000 per year.
This information has been publicly available since the summer, but is bypassed in the Comptroller’s report, said Wiley.
Stringers report comes two days after Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and seven of the borough”s 16 City Council members voted against de Blasio’s rezoning plans at Tuesday’s Brooklyn Boro Board meeting.
It also came just hours before Stringer was set to hold his much publicized Brooklyn Town Hall meeting in Fort Greene in what looks like a run-up to challenge de Blasio in the 2017 Democratic Mayoral Primary.
