rent apartment north york

okay. part two of our affordable housing tour.taking it north here to the bronx. that’s right. all right. i’ll give you a littlebronx pride there. [applause] yes. ruben diaz jr. taught me that, now ido it everywhere i go. i want to welcome the leaders of this administration who playedsuch a crucial role in development of this affordable housing plan. i want to say itat the outset. i won’t go into all the detail i went into earlier, but i’ll say it atthe outset. this is the largest affordable housing plan in the history of new york city.in fact, the largest plan in the history of any city in the united states of america.it will be the fastest, largest, most ambitious

affordable housing plan ever. and a lot ofpeople worked long and hard over these last four months very intensively to prepare thisplan so that we could create and preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing in thenext 10 years. that is an unprecedented pace, and the people who put together this plandeserve immense praise. i’m going to name them all, and then i’dlike you to join me in applause. but let me name all the names first. first a leader ofthe effort, our deputy mayor alicia glen; the chair of our city planning commission,carl weisbrod; our commissioner of hpd, vicki been. we have with us here today as well deputycommissioner eric enderlin of hpd; deputy commissioner vito mustaciuolo of hpd, whoknows this building well; assistant commissioner

kim darga of hpd. all of them and all theother agencies brought this plan together that will change new york city for the better.let’s give them all a round of applause. a lot of great organizations are our partnersin the ongoing effort to create and preserve affordable housing, including here on collegeavenue. i’d like to thank harry dirienzo, the president of banana kelly community improvementassociation. and susan camerata, the chief financial officerof wavecrest management. now if you’re old enough as i am to rememberthe old hebrew national ads that ended by saying the guy answered to a higher authority,this man answers to a higher authority, monsignor kevin sullivan, executive director of catholiccharities of the archdiocese of new york.

you remember those ads. okay. fitzroy christianof casa new settlement, ian davie of legal services new york city of the bronx. thankyou legal services. all of the community leaders and residents who fought to protect this communityand preserve affordable housing, let’s applaud you. borough president diaz will be here shortlyand he will once again join with me in doing the x. we’re here with the dean of our new yorkcity congressional delegation, congressman charlie rangel. thank you so much for joiningus. and exciting, young, vibrant new member of the new york city council, vanessa gibson. so as i said, the plan we announced todayis going to have a far-reaching impact on

the people of this city. it’s going to reachevery neighborhood, every borough – 200,000 units over 10 years. this is a direct responseto the affordability crisis that we have been facing in recent years. this is something– this affordability crisis – i bet a lot of people here could speak to this – ithas undermined the very idea that people can live long-term in this city with their families,can live in the neighborhoods they love. for the first time in the history of this city,it’s become more and more of a question whether people can stay in their own neighborhood.and we aim to address that squarely –200,000 units equals enough housing for half a millionnew yorkers. so people can actually afford to live in this city. and we made sure thatthis plan reached folks at the very lowest

income levels, straight on up to middle-income,working class people. make sure that every kind of new yorker has opportunity under thisplan. so it’s still a city for everyone. there’s an inequality crisis in this cityand in this nation. and we won’t address this crisis of inequality if we do thingsthe same old way. we have to do very fundamentally different strategies if we want to addressthis crisis. that’s why it is the most ambitious plan in history, because it’s a time inhistory that demands that. now, it is just as important to preserve anaffordable unit, to make sure it’s clean and safe and good for a family. and keep itaffordable. that is just as important as building a new unit. we have to do both. because everytime we lose an affordable housing unit in

this city, we take a step backwards. everytime we save one and keep it affordable, we take a step forward for this city. these buildingsare a prime example. and this is not my first time on college avenue.the last time i was here, we were celebrating, but we were celebrating – vanessa was here,a lot of you were here. we were celebrating the end of what had been a very troublingtime for the residents of these buildings. because they had fought, not just a bad landlord,not just a very bad landlord, but literally according to our worst landlords watch listthat the public advocate’s office created – this was literally the number one worstlandlord in new york city the year that we came out here to make the change.

and the people in this building had sufferedrats and water-damaged ceilings and holes in walls and floors and unsafe conditions.and not just a few serious housing violations, not only a few times where the law was violated,hundreds of serious housing violations in these buildings. it was fundamentally unacceptable. and i met the tenants who lived here and iadmired their strength and their focus on making things better. and the fact that theywere willing to fight no matter how bad the situation was. we used the worst landlordswatch list in the public advocate’s office to draw attention and to work with the city’sdepartment of housing preservation and development to create pressure to change the situationfundamentally.

and i have to tell you, that pressure workedbecause community residents stood up, tenants stood up, advocates stood up, elected officials,city agencies all came together and said, ‘we’re not going to accept an unacceptablestatus quo.’ and it was because of organizations like banana kelly and wavecrest managementand catholic charities and casa new settlement that change came to these buildings. thatthe bad landlord was moved out. and the people finally had a chance at decent housing. withpeople invested in the bronx making sure that that decent housing occurred. and again, let’sgive a real warm applause to all the folks who achieved that. now, does this mean we’re getting an upgradefrom the borough president? deputy borough

president aurelia green. this is your neighborhood.i was just around – i was on your block. i was at the community garden. i was on yourblock. the deputy borough president has joined us, thank you for being here. so we made clear that our goal is to protectaffordable housing in every neighborhood, to end the reality of people being pricedout and forced out of their own neighborhoods. this plan – based on all the public investment,all the actions we’re going to take using every tool of city government and pushinghard for our state and federal partners to do all they can do – this plan will resultin a total investment of over $41 billion, $41 billion over 10 years in all five boroughs.and again, a half million people will get

housing under this plan, affordable housing.let me put that in perspective for you. a half million people – because we’re newyorkers, big numbers just don’t register with us because we’re already the biggest.but let me give you some perspective. a half million people is more than the entire populationof kansas city, missouri. it is more than the entire population of atlanta, georgia.it is more than the entire population of miami, florida. we’re going to create that muchand preserve that much housing for people who need it. you’re going to hear in a moment from someof the heroes of this fight here, and some of the people who helped preserve this housingand make sure it was quality, affordable housing.

i want to emphasize, affordable housing isn’tgood enough if it’s substandard. it has to be quality, decent affordable housing afamily can actually live in. and what was happening here before the change was madejust wasn’t fair to the people who lived here. so we’re looking for quantity and quality.and we have the plan, now comes the really hard part. it’s hard enough to create aplan in four months for such an ambitious goal . but making it happen every single daytakes the real work. and we have a very dedicated team ready to do it. and one thing i’lltell you – if you had seen these meetings leading up to today, you would have sensedwhat i sensed, urgency. everyone involved

in this wants action now. no one’s restingon any laurels. they know there’s a crisis that requires – it requires a solution now. i want to refer to a moment in history verymuch like this, a deep economic crisis, people struggling to make ends meet. and our greatestmayor ever took office, fiorello laguardia, 1934. he saw a crisis in housing. he saw peoplenot only unable to pay for housing, he saw so many people living in squalor in tenementsall over this city. and he said it can’t continue this way. and even in the midst ofeconomic crisis, he said we have to do something fundamentally different. within one monthof taking office, he had created the new york city housing authority. and changed the faceof affordable housing forever in this city.

it became a model for the whole nation. atthe time, laguardia said very clearly he would not accept inaction from the city and he wouldn’taccept inaction from washington. he said, ‘we have had nothing but conferences. thething to do is get architects and engineers and start building houses. that is the attitudethat we have. it’s time to get the architects and the engineers. it’s time to work withthe community organizations to preserve housing and to create new housing. it’s time tobuild so the people of our city can live in the city they love. quick moment in spanishbefore i then introduce a few of our colleagues. [mayor delivers remarks in spanish]

with that, it would have been my honor tointroduce the borough president. he’s really a great guy. but as i said, we got an upgradeto deputy borough president aurelia green. please step forward. [applause]good afternoon and thank you all for being here. it is truly a wonderful day here inthe bronx. i want to thank you mayor de blasio for choosing my neighborhood in order to makethis great announcement. can you imagine all of that affordable housing? do you realizethe number of people who are begging for housing? we have them constantly coming into our officeand to know that this is going to happen over the next ten years is phenomenal. it’s notjust phenomenal, it is fantastic. it is great.

thank you mayor. you can speak anytime. [laughter] i just want to thank all of you who are outhere in support of this, because it is something that is so vitally needed. and here he is.i am so glad to be able to introduce my partner in government. so you see you even have agreater upgrade. your timing is impeccable. thank you everyone. thank you madame deputy.thank you mr. mayor for this wonderful announcement. of course, your entire administration for–

did you run from river avenue the whole way? no, i actually slowed down because there’sa slow zone on the grand concourse. so i came down the concourse. ladies and gentlemen,it is a pleasure to have mayor de blasio here making another huge announcement. it’s amazingwhat you’ve been able to roll out as mayor in just a short time, whether it’s universalpre-k. you know, you’ve had your hands full with – just yesterday, i’ve got to saythis. it’s not germane to this topic, but we stood with your transportation commissionerand it showed how government can work with the community, with the new bridge at thecity island. and so we want to thank you. i want to thank you for that mr. mayor. todaywe started and we kicked off our bronx week

celebration, ladies and gentlemen. and whatbetter way to also have mayor de blasio come here to our borough and announce this initiative,to have housing made available to all new yorkers who are seeking housing. now, the one thing i want to thank you asi look over the executive summary is that there’s some clarity. there’s claritynow on the different levels of housing. and that’s important because so many times,so many folks come to us and we’re not able to define exactly what’s low-income, what’smiddle-income, what’s mixed-income. and i know that you’re going to do a lot ofpreservation and rehabbing. and that’s important in our borough. but i’m also here to saythat i’m willing and prepared. and we are,

as bronx elected officials here and the community.we’re prepared to work with you, with alicia glen, with all of your administration so thatas we move forward, not only will we protect those units that are affordable today, butthat we also ensure that there’s diversity because as so many different professionalsin our bronx – yes, there are professionals in the bronx who want to stay here, who perhapsare making too much money for the low-income bracket, but obviously don’t make enoughmoney to buy their own homes and to purchase condos. so mr. mayor, this is huge. this isbig. you’ve been doing it in a big and huge way. i want to congratulate you and commendyou and let you know that on behalf of 1.4 million bronxites, we are extending our handto work with you, to work with the administration,

all of the elected officials. and again, thankyou for being here today. and if there’s anything that needs to be said about housing,it’s that the bronx is strong. the bronx is big because of the housing stock that’shere. and you, as mayor of the city of new york being with us here today, are going tocontinue to contribute to that. so congratulations. [bronx borough president diaz delivers remarksin spanish] before i bring up congressman rangel, two points. onethat we had a lot of questions at the previous press conference about how to interpret thenumbers by income in our plan, because what the federal government requires is talkingabout ami, area median income. so on page

19 of the plan, you will find the handy chartthat expresses in plain english and real income terms what we’re doing with our plan. oneof the things that will be abundantly clear, four times as many units will be built forthe lowest income new yorkers under this plan than under the affordable housing plan ofthe previous administration. you get a sense there of the way we’re spreading out theunits and the kind of volume that we’re putting together here. i also want to welcome– i mentioned the young, dynamic vanessa gibson. also dynamic and the youngest in thecity council – a rising star and someone who’s going to be a crucial partner – iwant to acknowledge and thank the chair of the public housing committee of the city council,richie torres. thanks for joining us. and

with that i welcome our congressman, charlierangel. thank you mr. mayor. i am so excited as anew yorker to see once again – as mayor laguardia has identified a crisis – thathe has made this a priority. i cannot wait to make certain that everyone in the new yorkdelegation that has these problems – as well as those in the united states congressand working with our secretary of hud. what i find so exciting is that we’re not talkingabout luxury housing. everywhere i go, people talk about 80-20, including putting luxuryhousing in nycha. this mayor is talking about what the crisis is. we have no crisis in luxuryhousing. if you’ve got the bucks, you can get the housing. but we cannot afford – withthe great job we’ve done in the old congressional

district in manhattan and moving here andi’m honored to serve in the bronx – we did such a great job that now the luxury peopleare coming up. they’re not going to take away our community after we worked so hard.so mr. mayor, i cannot tell you how proud i am of your leadership, how proud i am tobe in new york. and this is going to be a national program, but we’ve got to get ourmoney first. thank you. this is a man who understands his priorities.now i want to bring up a man who’s really been a hero of the fight for affordable housing,and one of the many heroes who saved these units here for hardworking people, harry dirienzoof banana kelly. [applause]thank you mr. mayor. i’m very happy to be

here today. in order to do a project likethis where you’re preserving housing, preserving a neighborhood, getting rid of a terriblelandlord – the worst landlord at a certain time – and also protecting tenancies andmaking sure people can stay in their homes, it takes a lot of work by a lot of people.first it takes the people themselves. they have to be willing to come out of their isolationand work together for something collectively. that’s not easy. it’s easier than it sounds,but it’s not easy. then you need some mobilizing force. casa new settlement was the organizershere. they brought together – they facilitated the organizing process. you need public attention.we got that public attention from our former public advocate, current mayor bill de blasio,who put a spotlight on a terrible, terrible

landlord. you need legal services. we haveian davie here today. we have stephanie rudolph here today. legal services are critical. weneeded a bank that handled the mortgage. and because of their first look policy, wherethey said we’re going to look first to a non-profit before we go ahead and sell itto the market, new york community bank sat down with us and negotiated a price that wasfair for us but didn’t – was also fair for the bank. then what else do you need?we were brought in as developers – we’ve been doing this for forty years. we do verywell with development, but that wasn’t enough. we needed partners with more capacity andmore money, and wavecrest management team and fc equities came in, and between january2013 and march 2014, had to invest about a

million dollars to get the title and to keepthese buildings in some kind of decent shape for the good tenants that are here. and theyare good tenants, hardworking tenants. many of them aren’t here because they are working.then what else do you need? you need experts: our architects, the general contractor, allthat. but nothing happens – alright, take any one of those elements away and the wholething may fall apart, right? cpc, community preservation corporation, they’re a lender,but they’re more like our partners. they sat with us and went through the whole processwith us. so many pieces went into this puzzle to make it work. but at the end of the day,without hpd coming in, hpd is the glue that makes all these preservation projects work.and i will say this, i said it before, bar

none this is the best housing agency in thecountry, hpd. and i think we should give them a round of applause. and mr. mayor, i want to thank you for comingin today and thank you for the leadership you put in place, because the people you putin place have the experience, and the knowledge, and the disposition to know that neighborhoodsmatter. and we are here to say we are your partners, we look forward to working withyou and your administration. thank you very much. before i ran for office i had a boss who wrotea book, and in that book she said it takes a village to raise a child. i would argueit takes a village also to save affordable

housing, to create affordable housing. andin that village, yes, as harry indicated, you need someone who has money. so we wantto thank wavecrest management for having stepped up and been a crucial part of this plan. let’swelcome susan camerata. thank you, mr. mayor. we at wavecrest as bothdeveloper and managing agent are extremely excited and proud to be able to be part ofthis rehab of the college avenue buildings, and a focus of the mayor’s preservationplan, along with banana kelly, our community partner. this was a challenging project fromthe very beginning. the buildings were in total disrepair, there was no oil, and thetenants were in court to get a seven-day administrator appointed. we started meeting with the tenantsalmost a year-and-a-half ago, and engaged

and apprised them of our negotiations as theyevolved. with the help and partnership of so many, we were able to close on the projectat the end of march, and have begun the work that was so badly needed. the improvementswe will be making are new kitchens and bathrooms, new windows, new roofs, new plumbing and electric,and a new gas boiler. so following the mayor’s plan, we’re making these improvements. they’llcreate energy savings and ensure long-term affordability. the commitment of the tenantsabove all, along with susanna blankley of casa , was integral in our ability to purchasethe buildings and ultimately begin the rehab. there’s cooperation from many others – chrisbeck of new york community bank, who provided interim financing; our partners, dave schwartz,marty horowitz, and harry dirienzo; andrew

giglio of community preservation corp.; anderic enderlin of hpd, who are providing the current financing. this partnership proved– this partnership of public, private, and community organizers can work together inorder to achieve the results that our entire group desired – to preserve existing housing,and to provide safe, decent, and affordable housing without displacing the tenants. it’swith gratitude and pride that we’re able to be here today to see the fruition of mayorde blasio’s initiative as public advocate of the landlord watch list, which was instrumentalin our ability to purchase the building from the prior owner, and now to be part of themayor’s new preservation plan. we thank mayor de blasio, deputy mayor glen, the bronxborough president for their continued support

on this project, and we look forward to workingwith the mayor and his administration on other preservation projects in the future. but aboveall, above all, we thank the tenants. it’s their perseverance in demanding that theywere entitled to decent housing – and their faith in our team to provide thatto them. thank you very much. thank you mr. mayor. finally before we take questions, i want tonote – so often this city government turns to a partner, whether it’s in affordablehousing, whether it’s in social services, healthcare, helping our seniors, helping ourchildren. one of the most important partners we have is catholic charities. and the manwho makes catholic charities work for all

the people in new york city is monsignor kevinsullivan. mr. mayor, i bring the greetings of the cardinal,who would be here himself, except he is in the middle east supporting and reviewing thework of catholic near east welfare association. but you know, more important than his greetings,i do bring his support that it’s critically important that we deal with affordable housing.and from our perspective, the reason is just very, very simple. there are many good reasonsto support affordable housing, but from our perspective, it’s just one – it is a basichuman right, and every person made in the image and likeness of god deserves a decentplace to live. and when that doesn’t happen, there is such a threat that we need to addressit. and mr. mayor, i’m pleased that you’ve

come here to the bronx in addition to brooklynbecause right behind us, they – through jorge batista and monsignor sakano, over thepast three decades – almost 2,000 units of housing have been preserved in highbridge.and you know why highbridge is so important? because it overlooks the cathedral of baseball,which is not fenway park, but is yankee stadium. no comment. but in addition to that, if you go a littlebit further south and you cross the rfk-triborough bridge, catholic charities in brooklyn andqueens, bishop dimarzio, robert seybold, john [inaudible], have done over 4,000 units ofhousing for some of the most difficult families that have the most trying needs. but enoughabout the past. we’re here because just

a mile away from here is saint augustine’schurch on franklin avenue hill. and for more than three centuries – or, spanning threecenturies – that was sacred worship space. that community now is small and still vibrant,and can worship in a neighboring parish. but the archdiocese has taken down that churchbuilding. and that site stands ready to be part of your affordable housing plan. andjust as for three centuries it was sacred space, it still will be sacred space. becausewhen a site houses human people, their families are raised, the human person is honored, andthat is sacred space. so for all the others in the bronx, monsignor jenik, the community-basedorganizations, the religious communities, the ursulines, the dominicans, the sistersof charity, we stand ready to work with you

on this initiative. thank you so much. thank you monsignor, and alicia glen willdraw up the contract right now. we’re moving fast, i told you we’re moving fast withthe plan. excellent. with that, i want to thank everyone who’s been a part of this,and we will welcome questions on this topic, on the affordable housing plan. yes? [reporter] i’ve got three questions. first,what is the income breakdown of the affordable housing? is it going to be 20 percent lowincome? are you talking about the whole plan? [reporter] yeah.

okay, so we’ll go over that. [reporter] more specifically, what percentageis going to be for people who make under $50,000 median income in new york? second questionis what can be done to preserve housing as long as rent-control laws [inaudible] regulation?and the third question is was there any consideration of [inaudible] in a westchester-style project?and if not, what is the obstacle for them? alright, a lot of questions. let me do – butall erudite – okay, on the penn south and the westchester-style project, alicia willspeak to what we’re going to be doing to try and preserve some of the existing othertypes of affordable housing and how we’re going to foster not exactly that model, butnew initiatives. alicia will do the income

mix with you, the range of units, etcetera.what was the second one again? [reporter] you talked a lot about [inaudible]preserving housing? you could argue the biggest obstacle is – is sure, enforcement. good. yeah, so firstof all, we’re going to fight hard in albany to preserve and strengthen rent regulation.i’ve said many times that i think it’s something that new york city should get tomake its own decisions about for our own tenants, and we will continue that effort. we alsoare going to beef up intensely enforcement efforts. this story right here is the resultof intensified enforcement in terms of housing violations that led us on a pathway to a newowner and a new and better situation for the

tenants. every day in new york city, thereare unfortunately examples of tenants being quietly or sometimes quite aggressively pushedout of affordable housing. we’re going to beef up the enforcement staff at hpd to fightagainst that. we’re going to go after landlords who unfortunately are violating the law moreaggressively, often they are the same ones doing these kinds of unfortunate, negativeactivities to push out tenants. we’re going to make sure that landlords that have a lotof housing violations don’t have an easy time getting other types of city businessand other types of city contracts. so we think the combined efforts there are going to changethe dynamics and help us protect affordability where exists. we’re also going to make somesmart investments in affordability, helping

landlords for example with some of the energyefficiency repairs that they have to make so that those buildings can stay affordable.so there’s a host of things to protect existing affordability. let me have alicia speak tothe other two questions. so i’ll be brief. on the penn south typequestion, one of the things we’re very focused on is being more proactive with our preservationefforts, so that when we know that a mitchell-lama or another subsidized housing project is gettingclose to the end of its regulatory period, we’re already proactively working with thoseowners and tenants to see what tools we have in our toolbox to allow those buildings tostay affordable for a long period of time. and that will be a variety of different things,like providing low-cost capital, or working

to design an appropriate tax-exemption sothat they can stay affordable for the long run. so first of all, we’re going to getvery proactive and not just wait for the disaster to happen. with respect to the income mixes,again, this is a plan and our target is really to do two things i think that are very important.one is we’re going to quadruple the number of extremely and very low-income familieswho are served by this plan. and as the mayor likes to say, what does that mean in reallife? that means that families who earn as little as $24,000 a year for a family of fourare now going to be targeted to get really quality housing in our new construction andpreservation programs. but at the same time, as the borough president said, there’s ahuge number of moderate and middle income

families who also feel very rent-burdened.and so we’re really also looking to improve the number of families we can serve on thatend of the income stream, because we really want to see mixed-income, diverse communities. [reporter] [inaudible] it’s in the plan. more than 50 percent ofthe total production and preservation will be targeted to folks at or below 50 percentof ami. [reporter] mr. mayor, given the fact thatsomething like this takes time to have an effect on the amount of supply in the housingmarket and pricing, how long do you think it’ll take for new yorkers to feel the benefitsof this initiative?

well, some of it’s happening right now.the examples i gave earlier i want to repeat, that we had four developments where our newphilosophy, our new strategy already had an impact. and i want to credit deputy mayorglen for her forceful approach to negotiation, one i wholeheartedly commend. and the sameapproach that we’ve seen from our chair of city planning carl weisbrod and our hpdcommissioner vicki been. we looked at the domino site in brooklyn, we thought we couldget more affordable units in there and more units for lower-income families than existedin the original plan. through opening up that negotiation again, we were able to achievethat. we looked at the hudson yards project. we thought we could get more affordabilityin and more living wage jobs in, we achieved

that. we looked at the cornerstone projectin the upper west side, we thought there was room for more affordable units, we achievedthat. the same with the lighthouse project in staten island. so right now, even the projectsthat are underway are being reworked to up the affordability numbers, and in many ofthose projects, you’re going to start to see units online in the near term. you’regoing to see a real increase over the next year as this plans starts to take full effect.and i think the best way to think of this is it’s an ongoing, intense operation. everysingle day, we’re trying to get more units online. and the preserve units, of course,are the ones we can do faster in many cases. so people will start to feel it. some thisyear and next year, even more in the years

thereafter. yeah? okay let’s get – is vito in the crowd?the world’s leading expert on this? or alicia can take this, for calling in about specificviolations in units, 311 or something else? we have 311 and then i hate to call out tothe crowd, but vito mustaciulo is in the house, and what is the number for housing violations?other than 311? is it just 311 or any other number? is it all running through 311 or do you alsohave a separate number at hpd to report serious violations? vito mustaciulo, deputy commissioner, hpd:[inaudible] referral [inaudible]

so do both. do 311 and work with your localcommunity groups, who can also aggregate all of that information and share it with theagency. yeah, and i want to emphasize – and i appreciatethe question, because as we just heard, the only way we’re going to be able to addressthese problems is if people report them. so we urge tenants who are experiencing inappropriateactions by bad landlords, who are not getting heat and hot water, who are not getting repairsthey deserve, we urge them to call 311. and obviously if there are community organizationslike banana kelly or casa new settlement or whatever is in their neighborhood that’sready to work with them, get those community organizations involved as well. melissa?

[reporter] mr. mayor, can you [inaudible] i’m going to start – look, the notionhere is, we talk about in the plan a variety of individuals we want to help. we talk aboutpeople who need supportive housing, there’s going to be a segment of the plan for that.a segment of the plan for seniors. we talk about folks who are in shelter, and some ofthose obviously are victims of domestic violence. we believe fundamentally that this affordablehousing plan is going to be one of the ways we reduce the number of people in shelter,including victims of domestic violence. so i think that the plan will help assist a lotof other efforts we have underway to help make sure that victims of domestic violenceget to long term solutions.

[reporter] [inaudible] we haven’t hearda lot of that [inaudible] will make one city more than any [inaudible]? i never stopped talking about the tale oftwo cities, i assure you. and i talked about the crisis of inequality, which is reallywhat this plan is meant to address. and the fact is, this is one of the most fundamentalthings we will do. when i talked about the plan earlier, i said look, the crisis of affordability,the crisis of inequality are all obviously connected. this city has become harder andharder for working people to live in. it is one of the examples of a bigger crisis ofinequality that’s happened in this city and this nation, where wages and benefitshave been pushed down, costs keep going up,

inequality in so many forms exists and wehave to address it. we’re trying to increase wages and benefits in a lot of different ways,including legislation like paid sick leave. but the other reality is the number one expensethat families face in this city in housing. and so, another way to address income inequalityis to reduce the cost of housing for working people. that’s what this plan focuses onspecifically; again, the largest affordable housing plan by any city in the history ofthis country. so it’s taking dead aim at the inequality crisis. and you’re right,dealing with the fact that we do have a tale of two cities today and trying to move ustoward a reality of one city. [reporter] i know that we just got this plan[inaudible] goals, but not necessarily how

we’re going to get there. are you satisfiedwith that? and two, for the congressman, you talked about how you wanted to see this asa plan that would be a model for the rest of the nation, could you talk more about thatand how you expect that to happen [inaudible]? okay, you start. i defer to the gentleman. i said earlier, new york city is new yorkcity. i can hardly think of anything that we have done, not just housing, that hasn’tbeen a model. i work very closely with republicans and democrats that have the same problemsthat we have. we have more of those problems and we have better answers than most. so i’mtalking about something like a reversible tax credit, where 30 percent is the max thatwe pay. but it fits right into one plan that

we’re going to have, and i’ll be ableto take advantage of the thinking of the mayor with hpd, so that when we get finished withthe state, new york once again will say this is a serious problem, this is how we’rehandling it, and take a look at it. so i’m – this is one of the most exciting thingsthat happened. you notice the mayor never talked about luxury housing. i’ve been waitingfor that for a long time. let the rich find the market place, and thank you for that. thank you, congressman. we’re very satisfiedwith this plan. it’s a very detailed plan. it shows a number of substantial departuresfrom past policy. we’re setting out very ambitious goals. by the way, we’re settingout ambitious goals so everyone here can hold

us to them. and especially the people i workfor are here, who are the residents of this city, we could have come in with a lesserplan. we wanted the plan that we thought was absolutely the outer limit of what could beachieved in a decade. we talked about the different approaches we’re going to take,to the tools we have. we’ve talked about a different approach in terms of reachingpeople at lower income levels. there’s a lot of specifics in this plan that indicatemajor departures, major changes form the past. and, like every other plan we’ve come outwith, including out pre-k and after-school plan, we will have a series of announcementsin the months hereafter to keep adding additional pieces to the plan. when we came out withthe pre-k and after-school plan, some people

questioned the specificity of it until wecame out with our teacher recruitment plan, our parent outreach plan, our space acquisitionplan. and then it became very clear that all the pieces were falling into place. you’regoing to see the same progression here. wait, someone who hasn’t gone yet. yes? [reporter] the bronx has the highest numberof rent-controlled [inaudible]. will priority be given to the borough of the bronx [inaudible]? priority is going to be given to where theneed is greatest, but it is clearly a five borough plan. so the notion here is everyneighborhood will be positively affected. there’s a lot of neighborhoods that peopleare being priced out of all over. there’s

a lot of neighborhoods that have struggledand continued to struggle. this is a truly citywide plan. but there’s no question inmy mind that the bronx will benefit very particularly. we’ve got a lot of people here ready todo more preservation, so one of the things is, who is ready to make it happen – that’swhere some of the action is going to go immediately. but i know the bronx will get a lot done throughthis plan. thanks everyone.