BY MARYANA AVERYANOVA
At the John Jay Educational Campus in Brooklyn, outgoing Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who will be the New York City Comptroller, met with voters and volunteers during the Yes on Affordable Housing campaign. The event took place on Election Day, when New Yorkers voted on several city ballot proposals. It included Ballot Questions 2, 3 and 4 which aim to make it easier and faster to build affordable housing in New York City.
As the new Comptroller, Levine said he hopes to invest 1% of the city’s $315 billion in pension fund assets to help pay for affordable housing.
Levine spoke about the housing-related ballot proposals, which he described as a chance to “fix inequality” in how housing is approved across neighborhoods. “Right now, if a community has enough money or influence, they can stop housing development,” he said. “They hire lawyers, they sue and they often win. We need a new system.”
In New York City, every large construction project has to go through a long public process known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or ULURP. The process gives local community boards and City Council members the power to review, delay, or block new housing proposals. Levine explained that wealthier neighborhoods often use this system to resist affordable housing by hiring attorneys, consultants, or lobbyists to oppose new developments.
As a result, poorer neighborhoods end up with most of the city’s affordable housing, while wealthier ones remain out of reach for lower-income residents. Levine said the housing proposals would help change that by streamlining approvals and focusing new projects in areas that have built the fewest homes. He described them as “a chance to end that era” of stalled development. Levine said, “It will make it harder to kill affordable housing projects and help create more balance across the city.”
At the Brooklyn site, volunteers with Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani’s campaign spoke about the housing issue.
Matthew Comeau, a volunteer who came from Washington, D.C., said, “This city is too expensive, bottom line. Affordable housing should mean that most of your income doesn’t go to rent.”
Another volunteer, Karen Ho, shared her view as a former international student. “There’s a misconception that all international students are rich,” she said. “Affordable housing helped me stay in New York and start my career.”
Levine said the city needs to focus on truly affordable rent for all income levels. He pointed to a project in Inwood that combined a rebuilt library with 172 affordable apartments, some costing as little as $680 a month. “It proves that housing can be affordable if we put in the effort,” he said.
Levine hopes the new measure, if approved, will lead to half a million new apartments over the next decade.“If we do this right,” he said, “young New Yorkers won’t have to win a lottery just to live in their own city.