HPD Commissioner Levy outlines four core priorities of Block by Block plan

Good morning, Chair Sanchez, members of the Council.

Thank you for having me back.

I am pleased to be here today to testify regarding Mayor Mamdani's bold housing plan, Block by Block.

The plan lays out a comprehensive strategy to address New York's housing crisis at the scale and with the urgency it deserves.

Today I would like to focus on four core priorities outlined in the plan.

First is our administration's commitment to ensuring that we are providing protections for tenants and significantly improving our enforcement, code enforcement efforts.

Second is our commitment to building a record amount of affordable housing with the goal of building 200,000 new units over the next 10 years.

We are also committed to preserving and stabilizing an additional 200,000 units over the same period, as well as using creative interventions that will drive down operating expenses and bring stability to responsible landlords and their tenants.

Third is a focus on building more equitable neighborhoods, including doubling our production of new homeownership units over the next two years,

meeting our fair housing goals, and making sure we are investing not only in affordable housing, but also in healthy neighborhoods, starting with our targeted Bronx plan.

Finally, in every aspect of this work, there is our commitment to delivering public excellence.

This includes significantly improving the housing lottery system, working with our partner agencies to eliminate redundancies in permitting and approvals,

and improving communication and work streams with external partners through initiatives like the tools program and clarifying HPD's priorities with respect to our production pipeline.

We have already made progress towards all of these goals, but there is much more to come.

I would like to start with our commitment to improving protections for tenants and strengthening enforcement.