Q&A
Council Member Sanchez questions Comptroller on NYC's capital budget role in addressing housing crisis
0:56:16
·
161 sec
Council Member Pierina Ana Sanchez inquires about the city's capacity to increase its capital budget to address the housing crisis, despite the notion that the city can't solve the problem alone. Comptroller Brad Lander responds by emphasizing the historical importance of the city's capital investment in housing and argues for continued investment as crucial for New York City's economic future.
- Lander draws parallels to the city's response to the fiscal crisis in the past, highlighting the success of using capital dollars for housing preservation.
- The Comptroller supports the Council's budget response of $2.5 billion over 5 years as fiscally prudent and necessary for the city's future.
- The discussion underscores the balance between seeking federal and state support and the city's own responsibility in addressing the housing crisis.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
0:56:16
Thank you so much, chair Brandon.
0:56:18
I just I just wanted to piggyback on your question on the on the state budget.
0:56:22
And, controller, you know, one of the most significant, I think, pieces of feedback or or pushback that the council gets when when we have these conversations and we make pushes to increase the capital budget in order to meet the housing crisis and build more and preserve more is that the city can't dig our way out on our own.
0:56:40
And I don't disagree with that statement.
0:56:42
I I don't think any of us disagrees with that statement, but I do think that we can do more.
0:56:47
And so my question to you is as our our our fiscal our chief fiscal officer in the city of New York is how do you view, how much of this, well, the role of the city's capital budget in the fight against the housing crisis?
0:57:01
How much, you know, should we can we, be putting in versus our state and federal counterparts?
Brad Lander
0:57:08
Yeah.
0:57:08
It's a great question, and I'm gonna connect it to, council member Carr's question because I don't think we appreciate, you know, coming out of the fiscal crisis in addition to all those fiscal controls, how much the city's pioneering effort to put capital dollars into stopping housing abandonment and housing preservation was a critical part of what brought the city back from the crisis.
0:57:33
No other city did anything like it at the time.
0:57:36
This city hadn't used capital dollars on housing before that.
0:57:39
It'd always been something the federal government did.
0:57:42
But in its moment of need, the city you know, mayor Koch realized it and created the 10 year capital plan, and that is a big part of what helps save our neighborhoods and and bring them back and, build the platform on which we're able to do that signature deal.
0:57:57
So, spending more capital dollars on it's not only out of compassion for families.
0:58:03
It's the city's economic future that's at stake if we can make this a city that's affordable for the full range of people that occupy it, and we need to do, you know, the the work as well as just live in the neighborhood.
0:58:17
So, I mean, of course, we need more help from the feds and the state, and we have to demand and push and organize, but it would be very shortsighted to say because we aren't getting what we need from the feds or the state, we can't, step up either.
0:58:32
There are limits to what we can do on the capital side and the operating side, but that what I I believe what's in the council's budget response, 2 and a half $1,000,000 over 5 years, is fiscally prudent, fits within the debt limit, and is wise, not just from a family's housing affordability for families, but a city's future economic and fiscal thriving point
Preston Niblack
0:58:55
of view.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
0:58:55
Thank you.
0:58:56
Thank you so much, controller.
0:58:57
Thank you, chair.
