The NYC Community Land Initiative (NYCCLI) issued the following statement in response to NYC’s adopted FY2025 budget:
“Our city faces an urgent affordability crisis that demands bold, decisive action on housing. While this budget contains some important gains – including $2 billion more for affordable housing than the Mayor proposed in his executive budget – it falls woefully short of what’s needed to stop displacement and keep New Yorkers securely housed.
“New Yorkers are fed up with a budget process in which the Mayor proposes harsh austerity measures, the City Council scrambles to restore cuts, and communities are left starved of the funding and services they desperately need.
“As part of the Homes Now, Homes for Generations coalition, we called for $2.5 billion in capital funding over five years for the construction and preservation of affordable housing, through Neighborhood Pillars and Open Door. The adopted budget includes only a fraction of that sum – $140 million over the next two years for these programs.
“If the City is serious about tackling root causes of the housing crisis, it must significantly increase investments in truly affordable, tenant and community-controlled housing, including by:
- Prioritizing capital funding for deeply and permanently affordable housing, through Neighborhood Pillars and other programs. A growing number of tenants and community land trusts are organizing to take buildings out of the hands of predatory landlords and into community ownership – and capital funds should support those acquisitions.
- Supporting and Scaling Community Land Trusts: The City Council must double down on its support for CLTs, by providing $3 million for the citywide CLT initiative. Increased funding will enable these essential institutions to grow, secure needed technical assistance, and seize opportunities to bring land and housing into community control.
- Passing the Community Land Act, including the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act and Public Land for Public Good Act, to help CLTs and other nonprofits take housing off the speculative market and develop vacant and unused public lots. Coupled with funding, these policies will go far to expand the supply of truly affordable housing – as well as commercial, community and green spaces – that New Yorkers urgently need.
“We will continue to fight, alongside community partners and City Council champions, for the investments our communities need for dignified, truly affordable housing and to prevent the displacement of low income and Black and brown New Yorkers.”
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The NYC Community Land Initiative (NYCCLI) is an alliance of social justice and affordable housing organizations working to advance community land trusts (CLTs) to address root causes of homelessness and displacement.
nyccli.org 