Mayor Adams unveils comprehensive plan for fixing NYC housing crisis: ‘Everyone needs to find housing’

Mayor Adams rolled out his long-awaited plan to tackle the city’s housing crisis on Tuesday — with a major focus on getting homeless people off the streets and overhauling the city’s beleaguered public housing system.

But the plan, which Adams unveiled at a press conference on a rooftop terrace in DUMBO, Brooklyn, staked out few benchmarks for how to measure its success. For instance, the mayor demurred when asked to offer a target for how many affordable housing units should be developed in his first term.

“I’m going to get as many people in my four years to get into housing as possible, and I’m not playing these games of, ‘What is this number?’ No, everyone needs to find housing,” he said. “Those are my goals.”

Adams and his chief housing officer, Jessica Katz, have pledged to be laser-focused on expanding housing access for all New Yorkers, including by incentivizing more development of affordable units via various zoning law changes that would need approval from the City Council.

Transforming the New York City Housing Authority, which has long been plagued by enormous repair backlogs, is another key priority, Adams said.

“The plan is the most comprehensive housing plan in New York City history. For the first time, it includes NYCHA,” he said.

Bolstering Adams’ push for overhauling NYCHA is legislation approved by the state Legislature this year that allows for a different funding formula that can unlock billions of new federal dollars for capital needs across the public housing system.

On the issue of homelessness, Adams said his blueprint is especially attentive because it was developed with input from people who previously lived in shelters or on the streets, including advocate Shams DaBaron, who attended the press conference.

“Under the previous administration, we were yelling outside of City Hall,” said DaBaron, who was a prominent critic of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s housing policies. “But this year … under Mayor Adams, we’ve been allowed inside City Hall, not to be a prop for the press or for any photo ops, it was homeless New Yorkers helping to craft a housing plan with the administration.”

Still, Adams acknowledged that fixing housing in the city is no easy feat.

“Difficult task, huge task, huge undertaking, we’re clear on that,” he said. “And we are not going to always get it right … But one thing’s for sure: One thing we are not going to fail at, we’re not going to fail at trying.”