 FIGHTING FOR MORE AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN BROOKLYN
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Throughout his career Bill has worked to build affordable housing and keep neighborhoods affordable for working families. Before he joined the New York City Council in 2001, Bill served in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) aiding then Secretary Andrew Cuomo. In the New York City Council Bill has won legislative and land-use victories that have led to the construction of thousands of units of affordable housing throughout Brooklyn. As Borough President Bill's first priority will be to build and preserve affordable housing.
Bill's Plan to Make Brooklyn More Affordable for Working Families:
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Putting City Land to Work: As Borough President, Bill will conduct an inventory of all unused and underused public land. He plans to maximize affordable housing in the development of vacant land and in the construction of new public facilities like libraries and public schools. Already Bill has put these principles into action. In the Council he led the fight to ensure that at least half of all units built at Public Place in Carroll Gardens will be affordable to low, moderate and middle income families and worked with his colleagues in the City Council to help the Fifth Avenue Committee turn an underused parking lot in Park Slope into supportive housing for seniors, persons with HIV and young people aging out of foster care.
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Leveraging Private Development to Build Affordable Housing: In the City Council Bill played a key role in reforming New York's zoning code and tax laws to create incentives for developers to build more affordable housing. Bill led the fight to close a longstanding loophole that gave tax breaks to developers of luxury housing. Under the new law, developers in most of Brooklyn will no longer qualify for tax abatements unless their projects set aside 20% of all units as affordable housing. Over the next ten years these reforms are expected to generate 20,000 new units of affordable housing.
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Inclusionary Zoning: Bill has also been a leader in the fight for inclusionary zoning – requiring developers to set aside affordable housing in order to build to maximum height. So far voluntary inclusionary zoning has been implemented in Greenpoint-Williamsburg and 4th Avenue in Park Slope, spurring the construction of hundreds of new units of affordable housing. As Borough President Bill plans to make inclusionary zoning mandatory in all Brooklyn neighborhoods.
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