Imagining affordable housing in New York

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to build or preserve 200,000 affordable housing units over the next decade. And not a moment too soon. An estimated half of New York renters lack affordable housing, meaning they spend more than a third of their salaries on rent. That may be as many as 1 million people.

In unveiling his OneNYC plan this week, de Blasio said he’ll attempt to lift 800,000 New Yorkers out of poverty.

His office called it one of the largest urban poverty initiatives in U.S. history, and affordable housing is likely to be one of the major proposals.

De Blasio has also called for the creation of 160,000 units of market-rate housing over the next decade, an acknowledgement, some say, that all New Yorkers are affected by a housing shortage.