Public Employee Press

Mayor asks for affordable housing, hiring in new budget

On Feb. 3 Mayor Bill de Blasio delivered his State of the City address, announcing plans to tackle the city's housing shortage by building 80,000 additional units of affordable housing while preserving 120,000 current units over the next decade.

"Nothing more expresses the inequality gap, the opportunity gap, than the soaring cost of housing," de Blasio said. "New York risks taking on the qualities of a gated community, a place defined by exclusivity rather than opportunity." He also repeated his demand to require developers to build affordable housing on property rezoned for housing by the city.

The areas targeted for development by the mayor include Long Island City and Flushing in Queens, East New York in Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Jerome Avenue corridor in the Bronx.

"Our members live and work in the communities Mayor de Blasio spoke about and feel the issue of New York's working families as our own," said DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, who attended the mayor's presentation at Baruch College.

In addition to addressing the housing crisis, the mayor also laid out preliminary plans for introducing permanent ferry service that would connect all five boroughs from Far Rockaway in Queens to lower Manhattan. The mayor also announced that he would push Albany to increase the minimum wage in the city to $13 an hour in 2016 and adjusted for cost-of-living increases.

"We embrace the positive changes the mayor outlined in his speech," Garrido added. "Universal pre-k is now a reality in our city, and affordable housing can become a reality too. DC 37 stands in support of the mayor's proposals."

The following week, on Feb. 9, the mayor announced a $77.7 billion preliminary budget for 2016, an increase of 3.6 percent from last year. The proposed budget will not include new taxes, or layoffs, or cuts in city services. This proposed budget calls for $11.3 million for the Fire Dept., including creating 45 new ambulance shifts, and earmarked $6.7 million to hire 149 EMS dispatchers to help improve emergency response time. The FDNY responded to a record 1.3 million emergency calls in 2014, and these additional dispatchers will hopefully fulfill the mayor's request to see improved response times in the South Bronx, western Queens and Staten Island. With the mayor's emphasis on public safety, the budget also calls for the hiring of 151 Police Communication Technicians at the NYPD.

The preliminary budget increases funding toward professional development of child welfare workers at the Administration for Children's Services, with the possibility of 83 new staff hires. Funds for outreach and advocacy services for the city's growing homeless population are also included in the budget. The Dept. of Homeless Services will see an additional 154 hires spread throughout various programs. De Blasio committed to providing more services to homeless veterans. The budget also provides for the Finance Dept. to hire 27 new Assessors and 20 Tax Auditors.

Although funding was not increased for the city's three public library systems, DC 37 is stepping up its efforts in its campaign on behalf of the public libraries during budget negotiations with the City Council.

"While we are clearly disappointed with the mayor's decision to not provide the funding necessary to restore the Bloomberg cuts which devastated our city libraries," said DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, "we believe that the City Council and the mayor will agree these restorations are vital at a time when our library services are most needed by the community."

Budget hearings will begin in March at the City Council, and the mayor submits his final executive budget in May. DC 37 leaders will present their views on the budget during the council's finance committee hearings. The 2016 fiscal year begins on July 1.

— AA