Adams Unveils Sweeping NYC Housing Plan, But Many Details Remain Vague

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Eric Adams unveiled a new plan for homelessness and affordable housing in New York City with one specific promise: it can't be understood just from Twitter.

"You've got to read this," he said Tuesday, holding the 97-page plan aloft, with the Manhattan skyline behind him.

"The plan is the most comprehensive housing plan in New York City history: for the first time it includes NYCHA," he said. "We're going to cover the entire spectrum of New York's housing."

But Adams spent much of a news conference devoted to the plan — officially titled "Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness" — refusing to commit to many specifics.

The plan itself calls to accelerate the construction of 15,000 supportive housing by two years, add resources to NYCHA and cut bureaucratic red tape, especially relating to homelessness and housing.

Indeed, Adams and the city's Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz emphasized that the plan aims to tear down government barriers to housing.

"We always say we have a housing first approach, it's something that we believe, but in actual practice we end up with a paperwork first approach," Katz said.

Adams, however, told reporters not to ask how many units would be built under the plan. He said the plan had another focus: "How many people are we going to put in housing?"

But later in the news conference, Adams — in a sign of his increased testiness with the press — repeatedly refused to specifically say how many people he hoped to put into housing.

"As many as possible," he said.

Advocates with The Legal Aid Society praised the plan's broad strokes, albeit with a major caveat.

"But red tape is only a portion of the problem, and homeless New Yorkers, along with low-income households, need genuine access to safe, long-term and affordable housing," they said in a statement. "This is the only real solution to our city’s sprawling housing crisis, and we call on City Hall to continue to dedicate capital dollars to fund truly affordable housing development throughout the boroughs.”