July 13, 2017Mayor Bill de Blasio: Everybody ready? Have your eyes adjusted? God, it was like a white flash when we came out here.[Laughter]Unknown: It’s a little hot.Mayor: A little hot too, yeah. Alright, well, this banner says it all – welcome home. It’s amazing to see a New York family finally come home to a place that they can afford and is going to be their home for the longterm. And I really want to thank the Crencher family for giving us a little glimpse of what it means to get affordable housing once and for all. And both of them have worked very hard and I think this epitomizes what we’re trying to achieve with this affordable housing program. It is to give people security, give them the knowledge they can live someplace really good and be a part of this city for the longterm, and live a good and decent life, and have an apartment they can afford. That’s what this has been about from the very, very beginning. When you think about the work they do – your work as a nurse and your work in building maintenance – these folks are New Yorkers who make this city work. These are the people who every day make New York City work for everybody else – help people to be healthy, keep our buildings running – working people who for a long time felt there was less and less place for them in New York City. And I can’t tell you how many conversations – thousands of conversations over the years with working New Yorkers who felt they were being priced out, forced out, displaced. We want to turn that equation around and more and more have the opportunity to stand with working New Yorkers who have found a home once and for all they can afford. So, this is a moment to celebrate this family and this beautiful experience they’re having. And I want to thank you also for taking care of your uncle, because I didn’t know that until I talked to you about it. Matthew Crencher: Yeah, we had to. We had no choice. Mayor: It’s a good and noble choice you made, and in the process – also another person who didn’t have a home has a home now, and that’s a very, very important thing. So, when we came in the door three-and-a-half years ago, the mandate from the people was clear – that they could not live in constant fear of being displaced. And we had to do something very, very different. And I want to thank our HPD Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer for her leadership and her team at HPD. They have done something absolutely miraculous.
The amount of affordable housing that they have created is beyond our wildest dreams. And I want people to understand, we put that plan together in May of 2014. Everyone said – who were experts in the field – it was very, very ambitious. I remember one leading expert said it’s this close to insane, Bill. That’s how out on the edge it was. But this team – and of course I want to give great credit to Maria’s predecessor, Vicki Been. I want to give great credit to our Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen. This team has done something amazing. Between the units that have been financed, the apartments that are already built, and the apartments that have been protected with subsidy. We now have set a new record – and this is an astounding number. Over three years, the city has financed and protected nearly 78,000 apartments – 78,000 apartments. This is my fun fact for the day – so, in just three years time – that much activity – that is enough housing to provide for the entire population of Salt Lake City, and it was done in three years. So, you could take every single human being in Salt Lake City and put them into the housing that HPD has initiated over these last three years. It is the largest amount of housing financed and created in a three-year period in the history of New York City. And the team that’s doing this work – I love saying this about them – they are on-budget and ahead of schedule. And we in government do not get to utter those words often enough. So, Maria, to you and your team, a special thank you – on-budget and ahead of schedule. This is part of a 10-year plan that we initiated in 2014. The goal – everyone knows – 200,000 apartments and enough housing for half-a-million people.
And I remind you, all of the public investment, we’ve added to it in this last budget. All of that public investment leverages a huge amount of private investment to the grand-total impact of this housing plan – will be $41 billion. Half-a-million people will experience just what this family is experiencing right now. And I’ll finish before we hear from them with a point that this is one piece of the affordable housing plan. I’ve got 8.5 million people who are concerned about how they’re going to keep living in this city. Half-a-million people will be part of this affordable housing plan. Another 400,000 people live in public housing. We are going to protect public housing for the long haul and keep it affordable, keep it public. Thousands and thousands of people have been able to stay in their apartments and avoid eviction because of the legal services we’re providing. And everyone knows that’s about the increase now because of our effort with the City Council. And then a very, very big piece of the equation – between two and two-and-a-half million people who are in rent stabilized housing and have seen either rent freezes or very small increases in the last years to help them stay in that affordable housing. This is how we keep New York, New York. This is how you keep the greatest city in the world what it is and what it always meant to be – a place for everyone. And I’ll finish by saying, people constantly are worried it’s going to slip away from them. Here’s how we make New York a place for New Yorkers and a place for people who built it. These two wonderful New Yorkers helped make this city great. Now, they know they will be a part of New York City for the long haul. With that, it is a great pleasure to introduce Diane Crencher, and to say to you, welcome home, Diane.