Contradicting de Blasio, Stringer and James Debut Union-Based Affordable Housing Plan
Source: Observer
Just months after the de Blasio administration argued that hiring union workers would undermine the Democratic mayor’s ambitious affordable housing plan, Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James today announced a plan to create or preserve up to 20,000 below-market apartments through a partnership with organized labor—and joining them was Building and Construction Trades Council President Gary LaBarbera, an outspoken critic of the mayor.
Mr. Stringer and Ms. James today announced a new $150 million city investment AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust, which allocates union worker savings dollars to construction projects that hire union workers—and which is undertaking a $1 billion project to build and maintain affordable housing in New York City. Both Democratic pols sit on the board of trustees of the city’s pension system and, as the city’s chief financial officer, the comptroller serves as the custodian and investment adviser for the civil servant retirement and disability funds.
“When it comes to building and preserving the housing we so desperately need, and creating the jobs we need, economically targeted investments are a crucial, important tool. And that’s because the Housing Investment Trust supports the rehabilitation and affordable housing construction, but it does so with union construction,” Mr. Stringer said at the announcement at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.
The seven-year HIT plan will use the funds for renovations and improvements at between 12,500 to 15,000 apartments in New York City Housing Authority buildings and other subsidized housing developments, and the creation of 5,000 to 7,500 new apartments through various nonprofit partners. The program aims to create 7,300 union construction jobs.
FULL story at link.
Union workers at the World Trade Center site (Photo: Spencer Platt for Getty Images)
Read more: http://observer.com/2015/10/contradicting-de-blasio-stringer-and-james-debut-union-based-affordable-housing-plan/