Chair Sanchez opens oversight hearing on Mayor Mamdani's Block by Block housing plan
Chair Pierina Ana Sanchez welcomes colleagues and the public, frames the hearing around Mayor Mamdani's Block by Block housing plan, and describes the city's profound housing crisis, noting historic low vacancy rates and disproportionate impacts on lowest-income New Yorkers.
Thank you, Sergeants, and good morning.
I'm Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, Chair of the Committee on Housing and Buildings.
On behalf of the City Council, I'd like to welcome the members of the public and the administration that join us today, in person and remotely, for today's oversight hearing.
I first want to acknowledge my colleagues who are present, Majority Leader Abreu, Councilmember Hudson, Councilmember Aviles, Councilmember Maloney, Councilmember Nurse, Councilmember Wilson, Banks, Epstein, Thomas Henry, and Aldebol.
Today's hearing is focused on Mayor Zoran Mamdani's Block by Block, the housing plan for a new era.
A comprehensive vision for empowering tenants, strengthening enforcement, preserving affordability, improving housing quality, expanding homeownership, and more.
We begin from a reality we all know.
New York City is in a profound housing crisis.
Our vacancy rate has fallen to historic lows, but this crisis is not experienced equally.
For the lowest income New Yorkers, housing insecurity can mean a child traveling hours from a shelter
Queens to remain in their school in the Bronx.
It can mean families living with mold, vermin, insufficient heat, and the constant fear that one missed paycheck could cost them their home.
In my district, where roughly 70% of households are housing cost burdened, this is the reality.
And these inequities did not happen by accident.
Generations of public policies have determined who could own a home, whose neighborhood received investment, and whose wealth could grow.
Today, those same communities face a federal government threatening housing assistance and the basic safety net that keeps families afloat.
That's why this plan matters so much.
And there is so much good in here.
There is a vision of government more willing to stand up to bad actors, more willing to empower tenants, more creative about rescuing distressed buildings, more ambitious about building housing and expanding homeownership.
And people are hopeful.
People who have spent generations watching government work better
for people and areas with money and power are wondering whether we could actually ever shift that balance, whether tenants might have more power someday,
whether working people could finally have a government willing to fight as hard for their stability as others fight for profit, present company included.