Transcript: Mayor Adams Unveils Plan to Help Faith-Based Organizations Build More Affordable Housing in NYC

March 22, 2024

Dan Garodnick, Director, Department of City Planning: All right. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today. It is great to be here in Jamaica at the Antioch Baptist Church with the mayor and so many great community leaders. My name is Dan Garodnick. I am the director of the Department of City Planning and chair of the City Planning Commission. 

I want to thank Pastor Mitchell for welcoming us here today. Please join me in offering him a big thanks. 

Pastor, we know you did a lot to make today happen. We really, really appreciate everything you did. And of course, our members of the administration who are joining us this morning. We have Adolfo Carrión, who is the commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Thank you commissioner.  

Pastor Gil Monrose, who is the executive director of the Office of Faith‑Based and Community Partnerships. Thank you, pastor. Some elected officials, the borough president of the great borough of Queens, my friend Donovan Richards. And another former colleague of mine and the great state senator, Leroy Comrie. Joining us in a moment will be Assemblymember Vivian Cook. Thank you, assemblymember in advance. And of course, we are joined by Pastor Mitchell. We appreciate him very much, and Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar is here. Thank you, Assemblymember. 

Now just to kick this off, I'm sure I don't have to tell you all that we have a housing crisis in New York City, and we're here today to talk about a generational proposal to solve that crisis: City of Yes for Housing Opportunity. 

As many of you know, the mayor first unveiled this plan in September. and it will soon be coming to community boards and borough presidents for their review. But today, we're here to talk about one particular aspect of that plan, how it will help faith‑based organizations and community leaders. 

So, without further ado, I am deeply honored to introduce the 110th mayor of New York City, Mayor Eric Adams.  

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much, Dan. It is so good to be here in Queens, my community of being raised as a child. Our family house is still on 167th Street between 111th Avenue and Sayres Avenue. And during our campaign earlier this week, we announced an ambitious move towards paying over 800,000 human service workers, majority are women of color and a large substantial number are people of color, substantial number are women of color. 

And we're paying them the salaries they deserve. And this is in alignment, when you do an analysis of what I promised when I was campaigning, I had a list of items that we were going to check off. And we are just going to allow folks to see the things we ran on, the things that we produce, everything from dyslexia screening, to bringing down crime, to raising Earned Income Tax Credit, to giving NYCHA residents the free broadband, high‑speed broadband. to make sure people are able to find housing. 

And to have amazing partnerships. I cannot say enough about Senator Comrie right from your hood and what he has done up in Albany in the Senate, and what has been taking place with the ever presence of Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar as she deals with these tough issues, like the two of them dealing with the cannabis issue. 

You are tired of these weed shops opening up all over your community. These are the two pioneers that have been pushing forward. And no one has coined the phrase better than the borough president, Donovan Richards: Queens gets the money. He has been pushing through projects of building and housing in his district over and over again. But this is probably one of the most important parts of our initiatives. 

Pastor Monrose, who was with me in the Brooklyn Borough President's office, we attempted to get the former mayor to be engaged with our houses of worship, because many of the problems that we are facing, our houses of worship, they're already addressing the problems. 

You know the housing crisis long before it is on the front burner because you hear from your parishioners. You know the problems around gun violence because you are at the funerals. You are in the hospitals talking to the loved ones who are victims. You know the victims of domestic violence, of mental health crisis. Our faith‑based leaders were talking about we needed to do something about mental health crises for years, and no one was listening. 

This administration with the creation of our faith‑based office that we started in the Brooklyn Borough Hall and brought over to City Hall, Pastor Monrose has been a real pioneer. He just took a delegation of clergy leaders to Washington to talk about the migrant and asylum crisis. 

At the foundation of what we do is our faith‑based community. I am just clearly focused on how do we continue to listen, engage, support and use our faith‑based community to do the things that you have been doing so long. 

Everything I do is rooted in faith. You cannot, in all of our faith books, you cannot open a page in the Bible and not see some type of conflict was going on. From Jesus being homeless, to destructions of cities, to wars, to violence. But every time you read, there's everything at the foundation of that and faith, faith over fear. And if you are not a fearless leader that's rooted in faith, you are not going to get through these crises that we're facing. 

So, every day I wake up with a clear north star, faith over fear: no distractions, stay focused and grind.  

That's all we do. 

So, this is an exciting day for us and it's only the beginning and you know, Dan has done an amazing job, former city councilman now in charge of city planning. He has just brought a level of creativity and expertise. 

We have had a racist, discriminatory housing policy in this city where we created these building and zoning rules that prevented people from building. And certain communities have no affordable housing, none whatsoever. And just the other day, hats off to Julie Menin, the city councilwoman, that the first mandatory inclusionary housing in her district, in her district. 

So, if you have access to good food, access to good schools, access to good hospitals, access to good transportation, you should have the most housing. You should be allowing people to build in your community so we could all benefit from the prosperity of it.

And all of us know we've all struggled to send our children away to school. Our babies are coming back home and can't afford to live in the city. They're coming back home and they're leaving the city to go live somewhere else because they can't afford to live here. 

If we start building a little in every community, then our children can stay here and be part of the city. This can't be a city just for the affluent and not for every New Yorkers. So, we're doing our part: raise the wages of 320,000 employees, 94 percent of our union employees have good, solid contracts where they could afford to live in the city.

We're doing everything we can do, but we have an inventory problem. We have 1.4 percent vacancy in the city, 1.4 percent vacancy. So, we have to have a housing plan that deals with the inventory problem that we are facing. So, this is an alignment with my agenda, public safety, making sure that the city is more livable and recovering our economy.

And we're doing it over and over again. And so this initiative, yes in my backyard. Our faith leaders are saying we have land, we have air rights, we have ability to build and many of them know how to build. They've done this before, they just never had to support that they deserve.

So, yes in my backyard, that's what we're doing today.

This great housing, now you can put that sign up.

This great housing opportunity plan. We cannot let old, outdated zoning rules keep us from building new housing. And our mission‑driven, faith‑based and community organizations can play a special role in this entire process. So, we say Yes in God's Backyard today 

If Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were here right now, they'd be standing with these clergy leaders.  

They'd be standing with these clergy leaders right now, because this is the work the disciples did, and so these disciples are here saying in our backyard. 

Our plan is to enable faith‑based organizations to convert old convents, school buildings and other spaces, lots, owned by faith‑based and other community organization sites. How long have we been talking about this? 

So I'm seeing some faces that we've talked about this for so many years. And we want to continue to allowing landmarked builders greater flexibility to transfer their rights to nearby sites. We have all of these landmark buildings and churches are being told as they're falling down, can't get the money to rebuild them. They saying your building is landmarked, you can't do anything with it. 

We have to have more flexibility. We have to live in the real world. The ideal cannot collide with the real. And these faith‑based leaders have been talking about this over and over again. They want to deliver more housing, and we want to give them the opportunity to do so. These changes will help add affordable housing, new facilities for congregations and new resources for faith‑based organizations that are struggling to make ends meet. 

After Covid, we're seeing a drastic decrease in population, parishioners. These churches are struggling, and this is an opportunity to make sure they get the resources they need. So, in short, it will support New York families and strengthen our communities of faith. 

Right now, current zoning prevents churches like the one we’re in from building critical, needed, three to five apartment buildings on large lots. Let's say no to continue to do a thing that prevents the builders that we're looking for. 

And I just really want to thank all of our faith leaders that are here, because today we are throwing open the door to new solutions and new housing that would help us solve the crisis by working with our churches, our synagogues, our mosques and other faith‑based organizations to build more housing and reclaim our city for working class people. 

In a moment, to hear the voices that we have heard for so long asking for more housing. The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity will enter public review in April, community boards will hear the plan this spring and the City Council will vote on it by the end of the year. 

And we will do everything we can to get those changes through, and we want to hear from folks. We want to make sure that we can work in alignment with the needs of the community to get the results that we're looking for. 

And we need Albany. I can't say enough by both our senator and assemblywoman who are here today and our colleagues in Albany as they go through the budget cycle. We're going to need their help to push through these important issues. State leaders are negotiating a budget deal, and we need the package to deliver the housing changes our city desperately need. 

Many office spaces that can convert into housing, many locales that we believe can convert into housing. That's what's in front of us right now. That includes a tax incentive, repeal our FAR caps, a lot of technical terms. 

But they all come down to one thing: placing the key in the lock that you can go inside the home that's your home. No matter how technical it sounds, it is all the same thing because a house, a home is a precursor to sleep that allows you to experience the American dream, and too many people are existing in a nightmare of not having a place to provide for their family. 

So, we need Albany to assist us in this faith‑based affordable housing act. 

This is a fight for the soul of our city. So, it's only fitting that we're here among the good shepherds. You would never be a good shepherd if you don't know the needs of the sheep. And that is what we're doing today. We are the shepherds that is shepherding forward a real housing plan. 

And this is in alignment with what Dr. King fought for for so many years, and it's the continuation of that. He called out discriminatory practices by landlords and realtors that kept Black Americans out of certain neighborhoods, which is present here today. That's what this building of… This building by faith initiative that we're doing. 

It was King who advocated for the Fair Housing Act that came through our national leadership. The landmark legislation was finally passed by congress the week after he was assassinated. It took his death before they realized that we had to do. The movement of that bullet may have stopped physically, but emotionally is still ripping apart the decades and decades of how we have failed in housing. 

And today, we're saying we're putting an end to that. I cannot thank these leaders enough for what they are doing on so many levels. Our faith‑based leaders have held up what we need in this city. In every aspect we've called on you and you have responded.

And I want to personally say thank you. Continue to lift us up in prayer as we navigate the roads that are in front of us. But everything is possible in the eyes of God. No matter how many weapons that are formed against us, they will never prosper. God never said it won't be any weapons. He just said it won't prosper. You know. The only way it won't prosper is for us to continue to have faith. 

Garodnick: All right. Thank you very much, mayor. As the mayor made so clear, our housing shortage is at the root of so many of our challenges. He said it, the 1.4 percent vacancy rate is no leverage for tenants. We see rising rents, gentrification, displacement, homelessness, the imbalance of power between landlords and tenants. And there are even fewer options for the most affordable apartments, functionally zero percent for vacancy in that category. 

Faith leaders can see what the housing crisis is doing to our city every weekend, too often in rows of empty pews as housing costs are hollowing out communities across our city. Lifelong New Yorkers are being forced out of their neighborhoods because there are not enough housing options for them. 

We do not need to live this way. We can create a city where there are options for housing in every neighborhood so you can rent or buy, you can stay in your own community or move closer to your family or your job. 

We have a plan to fix this crisis. City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, it is the most pro‑housing initiative in the history of New York City zoning. 

We are aiming to create, as the mayor said, a little more housing in every neighborhood, and when every neighborhood contributes, we can make a big impact citywide. We have carefully crafted these proposals to match the character of every neighborhood, from the high rises in Manhattan to low density areas like this one. 

And in particular, we want to make it easier for faith‑based organizations and leaders like Pastor Mitchell to help build housing, because we can only solve this crisis if everybody is pitching in. 

So, how are we going to do it? How are we going to help folks like Pastor Mitchell and the great faith‑based leaders behind me and all throughout the city? First, we're going to make it easier for organizations with campuses like churches to do infill development. Today, even if they have development rights to build, arcane rules mean that they can't actually use those development rights. We're going to change that. 

Next, conversions. You've probably heard our efforts to help Midtown office buildings convert to housing — that gets a lot of attention out there in the world — but they're not the only candidates. If a religious organization wants to convert a convent or an unused school building to housing, they should be able to do it, too. 

Third, we're going to help them raise revenue by expanding a little‑used program that allows landmark buildings like religious buildings, for example, to sell what are called transferable development rights to generate revenue for their operations. 

And lastly, we will give community facilities like faith organizations the ability to build more housing than they would otherwise be able to.

As the mayor said, this is highly technical, it is very wonky. But let me, too, try to put it in the simplest terms. When our community leaders want to build affordable housing, we in government should be supporting them, not throwing up barriers.  

These organizations feel the impacts of the housing crisis every day. They provide critical services for New Yorkers in need. They face challenges with congregations shrinking as their members deal with the housing crisis, and they need financial support for aging buildings. City of Yes would support them as they serve our communities. We have been working hand in hand with faith partners across the city, and these policies that we're proposing are directly responsive to what they have identified would most help them. 

Now, to be clear about how this works legally, all of these policies have wide‑ranging benefits for all sorts of stakeholders. We are highlighting particular moves that would help faith‑based organizations, but they're part of an important plan, and it will get a vote at the City Council, as the mayor noted, before the end of the year. 

And by the way, we appreciate that the Council is committed to fair housing and has made it clear that every neighborhood must build a bit more housing. And these changes are entirely within the city's control. Changes in Albany, like the mayor noted, we need their support, we need their help for a lot of reasons. 

There's a lot of changes they should be making up there and their changes can supercharge our zoning proposals and make them even more effective. But everything that I have just laid out is purely up to us here in New York City. 

So, we're looking forward to getting this done this year, and one great ally in this conversation, somebody who I have known for a very long time. He has been a great champion for housing in every borough. We know which borough he loves the most, that's for sure. But let me introduce a great leader for the borough of Queens, Mr. Borough President, my friend, Donovan Richards. 

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards: All right. Good morning, y'all. And I want to thank Reverend Adams — I mean, Mayor Adams — coming back home; and certainly, to all of our leaders in faith. I think one way to sum this announcement up, is faith without works is what? 

Is dead. And we are in a state of emergency right now where we have 40,000 migrants in our care in this borough. But let me also add that we had a compounding issue with homelessness for a long time in our city as well, so you add those two things together and we are in a state of emergency. 

But there are some great signs of progress in the borough. First of all, when we came into office, unemployment rate in Queens was hovering around 24 percent, we're down to four percent. And Queens has led the city in housing production consecutively for two years. But we know we've got a lot more work to do, and great to see Commissioner Carrión here. You keep spending money in Queens, all right? We want all of our units financed, all right? 

And we got a lot of great great projects coming down the pipeline. But I really want to thank Chair Garodnick, of course, for his work. And it really feels good to be back home because we are undergoing a major exercise here now. And if you are unaware of what's happening in Jamaica, and I really want to thank Mayor Adams who not only got elected, but came back home, and we said, we got to fix Jamaica Avenue, because we are spending too much of our disposable income in Long Island and in other parts of Queens. 

So, it's really about making sure that economic growth happens in every part of our borough. And the mayor did not hedge when I asked him for a few dollars, which is about $70 million, which is going into Jamaica Avenue, we're in the process of that. And we launched the Jamaica Neighborhood Study along with Councilmember Williams and Speaker Adams, of course, last year. And everybody needs to be engaged, because this rezoning really gives us the opportunity to not just talk about the housing crisis but to be a part of the solution.

But today we're here to talk about, of course, our faith‑based communities, and I've heard from many of our leaders who want to be a part of the solution, who want to do God's work, but who are really prohibited from doing it because sometimes, as the mayor has alluded to, we have challenges in financing.

But one way to ensure we can move many of these projects forward is to do what God has called us to do, and that is to take care of the least amongst of us. So, yes, building housing. Building housing is a part of that plan. We cannot talk our way out of this crisis, we have to build our way out of this crisis.

And I know many of you feel it in your pews, when people can't make, can't put a few dollars in the plate on a Sunday, it's because they are struggling. When we look at the inflation and how that has impacted our communities, it impacts our faith‑based institutions the same way.

So, we really want to make sure that we're moving ahead. We know that in this community, more than 50 percent of folks who live here are spending more than 50 percent of their income on rent. So, how do we resolve that? By building true — true — affordable housing, as the mayor alluded to.

And we can't be of the mindset of not in my backyard, it has to be Yes in God's Backyard. We are called here not to just talk about these issues, but to really be part of the solution.

And that's a commandment that so many of our houses of worship and faith‑based organizations actively follow, because we know that church does not stop on Sunday. Church is seven days a week. And as the need for housing surges in communities especially like this, we know that we are losing a lot of our young people.

We're losing Black New Yorkers at a historic rate. We at one point know that there was migration from the south to the north, we're seeing that in reverse right now. We're seeing north, we're going from north to south, and that is because we cannot afford to stay in our community.

So, that's what this [ext amendment does. It makes sure that we can keep our young people, keep people in their homes. And as someone who's lived in basement apartments and moved as many times as, I mean, I can't even count how many times that my parents and I moved because we could not find reliable, affordable housing. We need to make sure that the future Donovan Richards has a place to stay here, the future borough president has a place to be here.

So, I'm proud to be here. Once again, proud to see this amendment move forward. We need Albany to really get some religion and to move this forward. We cannot twiddle our thumbs during this moment. Every minute, every day counts. We are in a state of emergency, and we must move like it.

And I hope when Albany really, maybe we pray, can we pray? We'll pray for our folks in Albany to get, whatever they want to call it, the 421‑a done. We need to make sure basement apartments are legalized and we need to also make sure that this amendment moves forward so that our institutions can also be a part of the solution. Thank you for having me.

Garodnick: Thank you very much, Mr. Borough President. Next up we have a longtime community leader and our host today in this beautiful space here at Antioch Baptist Church. He's a leader who has experience in housing development and services and who has seen how this community has been impacted by the housing crisis.

And has been and we know will continue to be an amazing partner in our work to address this crisis. Please join me in thanking again and welcoming to the podium Pastor Timothy Mitchell. Thank you.

Reverend Timothy Mitchell, Pastor, Antioch Baptist Church: To our moderator, to our mayor, to all the wonderful guests, welcome to Antioch Baptist Church of Jamaica, New York which is also the home of A Better Way Family and Community Center.

There is a sacred text that says, without a vision, people perish, and we are grateful that our mayor has a vision that people do not have to perish on the street because they don't have a home, because they don't have food.

Families do not have to perish because they have to make the choices between paying doctor bills or putting food on the table. We're grateful for a vision that brings people together both in the government and also in the faith community to sit down and talk about the creative and awesome ways that we can help people to be empowered to gain strength, to find a home, to find a sense of belonging and to see a brighter tomorrow.

Our Compassion Ministry, we see all faces of persons who are in need of housing, not just people that we see on the street but also our elderly, people with medical needs, our young people. Our Compassion Ministry goes down to the Long Island Railroad and we pass out food to those who are not as fortunate as many of us, who would love to be able to have a place that they could call home.

What motivated me to open up this house for all of us to come in today is because I've had young people come in and say, Pastor, I have nowhere to stay. I have nowhere to go. So, if we can open our doors to bring in and welcome in people who have problems, who are struggling, we can open up our doors to bring in vision, opportunity to create ways for them to be able to make it in this world.

So, I am a product of this area. I did come out of Brooklyn, but at the age of four, my parents moved one block down from here. I'm fortunate that I'm a pastor in the area where I grew up at.

And in my time here, there has been a vacant lot, one block over. It makes no sense that a lot, I'm not going to tell my age, but has been around for as long as it has and as many people do not have a home or place to stay where we can develop that lot in that place so people can call it a home and have shelter over their heads.

It is a wonderful opportunity that we who are in the faith community can sit down with government, because many of us may not have the experience or the technical know‑how or the resources. And why go into a situation where we may violate this and get summonses here and all these kinds of situations where we can do it the right way, the first way and go out and create something that everybody can be proud of.

I know this can work, because this is something that I do that takes place in Manhattan. A low income housing program that was started by American Baptist Churches shows that government and faith communities can come together to make it work.

Without a vision, people perish. But Mayor Adams has brought a vision and people do not have to perish, as long as we bring our resources together and do it for the betterment of other people. So, thank you for all coming. Thank you for the vision, mayor. Thank you for all who are here. It's an honor and privilege to serve, because that's what it's all about. If I can help somebody as I travel along this way, then my living is not in vain.

Mayor Adams: Also, I saw Assemblywoman Cook walk in. Thank you for joining us as well. I want to have, we're in their houses, let our two electeds, Senator Comrie and Assemblywoman Rajkumar, and then we open up to on topic questions.

State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar: Well, good afternoon. And I think the leader of this church said it best, but I will say that I am reminded of the words of the Bible that, is it not to share your food with the hungry, and provide the poor wander with shelter, when you see the naked to clothe them and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood.

This is about our divine mandate to care for those in need, and that is why today we are launching this, Yes in God's Backyard. Let us also remember the parable of the Good Samaritan who went above and beyond to provide shelter to a stranger.

When there is a crisis, the faith community of our city rises to the challenge. Whether it is a church, synagogue, mosque, Sikh gurdwara or Hindu temple, that's what they do. And our faith tells all of us that every person has the right to shelter. Our faith tells us that every New Yorker has a right to a home.

And right now there are simply not enough homes. New housing construction is actually not even keeping pace with the population growth. More than half of all renters are rent burdened. Our shelter system has nearly doubled in size, approximately 150,000 people.

So, it is time for us to build ourselves out of this crisis. We need to build more housing in this city, and once we flood the market with more housing, the rents will drop for all New Yorkers. And receiving affordable housing will no longer be a pipe dream, like winning the lottery, but receiving an affordable home will be just part of what it is to be a New Yorker.

And so today we are modernizing our outdated zoning laws, and those outdated zoning laws have handcuffed us, and our potential. And we're going to start right here in our faith institutions.

And now it's Albany's turn to act, as the mayor has said. And as an Albany lawmaker, I am fighting every day in Albany to pass a housing plan. Doing nothing is simply not an option. We need to build. The FAR cap has not been updated since 1960, and it is now 2024 and we need to move forward.

Common sense tax incentives are critical to restore, yes, along with tenant protections. And here in Queens, we need to legalize basement apartments, as our borough president has said. And in Manhattan, we need to turn vacant commercial space into affordable units. This is the year that we can build ourselves out of the crisis, and we have now just about one week to pass a housing plan in the state budget. So, let's get it done.

So, Mayor Adams, thank you for leading this initiative, and I look forward to bringing to you and New York City a housing plan.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

State Senator Leroy Comrie: Good morning, everybody. I'm honored to be here today. I'm honored that our good man, Pastor Timothy Mitchell called me and asked me to attend. And he told me what he wanted to do and I was like, it's about time that we're hearing from the local ministers in our community and throughout our city that they want the City of Yes plan.

It's about time that the ministers are speaking up, and I hope that they will go to their local elected officials, to their community board and let no stone be unturned to let them know that it's your time to be able to be developed, that it's your time to be able to be able to expand your footprint so that we can allow young people to stay in New York, not to go to school and never come back.

It's about time that we create homes for seniors, because our population is aging in that space in major numbers, and we're losing our seniors because they're going somewhere cheaper to live.

It's about time that we do things to ensure that we are breaking the FAR cap, that we're creating opportunities for tenants and property owners they're able to get legal support, foreclosure relief, help with what's happening with a lot of seniors, they're being preyed upon by people and wind up losing their homes.

This plan, City of Yes, will do that. This plan, City of Yes, will create an opportunity for every neighborhood to be able to do a little bit more so that we can break this housing crisis.

I'm very proud of the mayor for doing this, for selecting Dan Garodnick, who I've had the honor of working with in the City Council, to come up with a plan that makes sense. Everybody's not going to like every element of it, but there's something in every neighborhood that they can use.

But the issue is to make sure that every neighborhood will use something. Every neighborhood will have to do something. And I'm here today to say that I support this plan. I'm glad that Reverend Mitchell will be using it to build needed housing. I'm glad that the other ministers will be able to target their plans and that the city is putting behind it.

My job in the state is to try to make sure we have a state housing plan that makes sense, that addresses the needs of our income, the people that need low income housing, need affordable housing, need to make sure that we break the caps, that we help our small property owners who, in Queens, we have the most small property owners that are $3,000, $10,000 in debt because they can't get their rent.

They were told originally that you could be able to become rich… Not rich, but have intergenerational wealth to pass on to your children. Let me get that right. So, I'm up here getting on the pulpit getting lost.

But the idea is that we have too many, and you've seen the articles. Most of the violent incidents that have happened in Queens with small property owners is because they can't get rent for two, three years. They can't afford to go to court because they're working four jobs. This City of Yes program would stop that.

So, I'm here today to reaffirm my commitment to the mayor, my commitment to Dan to support the City of Yes program, make sure that it's also in Albany. But I need you guys to come to Albany. If you can't come, e‑mail, contact the Manhattan based elected officials — Sorry, Dan — because they are blocking this program because they want to keep an FAR cap. I'm going to just tell the truth in front. They are blocking this plan because they don't want to see affordable development in their neighborhoods.

But we got to stop that. This city is bigger than that. We can't keep this city as it was 20 years ago or 30 years ago. ago. We have to move forward. So I'm proud to be here today. I want to thank all of you for taking time to be here.

But I want to just let you know you're not done with today's appearances. You're just getting started with your activism. You're just getting started. I want to make sure I see all of you in Albany or all of you beating up on other elected officials, not me, to make sure that this happens. So, thank you all. Enjoy the rest of the day.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. How are you?

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good, I'm all the way in Jamaica, Queens.

Mayor Adams: We love it. 

Question: I have a couple questions for you or anybody from your administration could answer. How many units of affordable housing could this program potentially open up?

Also wondering, if maybe someone from the state can talk about the negotiations for the 421‑a. If you don't get 421‑a, would you be happy with at least some investments in housing if they at least give you a budget for housing?

And I also noticed there's nobody from the City Council, but when you proposed this idea to them, what were their thoughts on it? Are they thinking this is a good idea? I believe we're in the speaker's district, though, she's not here. I wonder if you've spoken to her about it, does she seem excited.

And final thing, just because so many people brought it up. The migrant crisis, you're headed to the southern border on Saturday can you just talk about that trip?

Mayor Adams: Thank you. And Dan we're going to the number of housing. The City Councilmembers have made it clear: they want to hear from the constituents. They want the constituents, as the senator really raised, this is a moment where it's not just what we want as an administration, but to hear from, you know, Pastor Mitchell, Bishop Riley. Bishop Riley has an unbelievable piece of property connected to his church.

And so it is our job to do this. It's our job to show that this is something that everyday people are saying it's time to address the housing crisis. And the City Council is going to deliberate, and many of our partners there are willing to say that this is something we need to do, but let's hear from the people.

And you know, what is really comforting for me is the role of our borough presidents, both Borough President Richards, Borough President Reynoso, their energy around housing is really what is needed.

So, we want a grassroots effort, and the City Council is going to do their deliberation. We have to get to our community boards, we have to get to our block associations and let them not be fearful of what the City of Yes means. The City of Yes means that your children, your families, our older adults can age in place. It's about building a small amount of housing all over the city. Do you want to go over the… 

Garodnick: Sure, yes. So we're just finishing our environmental review of this proposal before we refer it out to community boards and borough presidents. We are estimating that over 15 years, the plan would create 100,000 units of housing.

But of course we're making zoning changes. Zoning changes live on. We're looking backwards now to things which were done in 1961. We should be looking forward to the impact that this will have not just over 15 years, but over the next 60 to 80 years. These are really important changes for us to be making to break down the barriers that have existed for too long in New York City.

And as it relates to the City Council, I will just note that we have been really encouraged by the fact that the Council and the speaker have been very clear about their desire to set goals and targets across the entire city. They passed a bill to do just that last year.

The speaker has been very clear in her advocacy, not only in a recent op‑ed that she wrote with the mayor but also in her recent State of the City speech where she indicated she is eager to work with us on this very proposal.

And of course, councilmembers recognize the moment that we are in. I think that people are beginning to really see the human cost of lack of housing supply. You can't run away from 1.41 percent on a vacancy rate. The cost of rent, displacement, gentrification, homelessness and that imbalance of power between landlords and tenants as a direct result of that number, and so people are seeing that more than ever before. So, we're very encouraged and we look forward to having that conversation with them.

Question: And then negotiations in Albany about 421‑a, can you give an update on that?

Mayor Adams: What I've learned from being an elected in Albany is that you talk too much, you blow it up. It's about letting Albany do the things that they do, let them deliberate. We are days away from the budget. And I've learned that if you allow them to do what they do, we continue to walk away with the victories we have been able to get.

We have been able to get just unprecedented level of support from Albany, everything from raising the Earned Income Tax Credit, decreasing the cost of childcare, NYCHA Land Trust. I could just go through the list. And it's the best thing you could do, let them do their thing. They're in Albany, I'm here in New York, and the leaders up there are going to make their announcement as they deliberate.

The trip to the southern border, the press team will go over that. But I am just really pleased with the national leaders who have looked at New York, traveled here, witnessed what we have done and stated that there is no other municipality in the country that's doing what New York City is doing.

We should be really pleased as New Yorkers. I know this is difficult. I know it's challenging for all of us. But we stepped up. And 180,000 people coming into our city, not the support we should get from the national government like we deserve, we stepped up.

And it's not only what we have done as an administration, but the number of churches that have stepped up, the number of everyday New Yorkers that are delivering clothing and food. We have stepped up as a city, and history is going to be kind on New York. And so we were invited down to communicate with national leaders that traveled here and so what we have done.

When you're going through a crisis, you don't really have the privilege or the benefit of really acknowledging what you've done in the crisis. But trust me, New Yorkers, when people look back on this moment, they're going to realize that we were not only good worshipers, we were good practitioners. It's easy to worship, but it's challenging sometimes to practice when you're dealing with the discomfort of 180,000 people in your city.

So, the press team, Charles and the team will give you the full itinerary. It's going to be a quick one‑day trip. We're going down and we're going to come back on Monday, so your blinking eye, you're not going to miss me, I'll be back here.

Question: Mayor, what is the plan to make basements legal and safe to live in?

Mayor Adams: That's the goal. And you know, this is a very sensitive topic in Queens, you know? But we're going to, you know, there's a deal to be made. What Queensites don't want, they don't want illegal settings. They don't want to all of a sudden open their door and see someone built an entire house in the backyard of the house next to them.

And that is part of the conversation, part of the negotiation, because we want to get it right. As Dan pointed out, each part is catered to the community. And Queens is an unbelievable area where you have a lot of working class people, you probably have the greatest number of working class union members in the borough of Queens.

And we're not trying to disrupt the feeling of being in Queens, but we know that there are possibilities that if we all build a little more that we can accomplish the goal we're looking for.

And basement apartments, it provides a real service when you have a child returning from school, when you have an older adult who can no longer live on their own, when you have a family member who needs a stepping stone. You know, that is part of our culture.

And so many people are living in the shadows. They're living in the shadows. And our goal is to find a safe way to do it, and we don't want to disrupt the community in the process.