Mamdani Seeks Bold $22B Action Plan To Add 400,000 Homes, $40 Wage Rate
NEW YORK—On May 26, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released the “Block by Block: The Housing Plan for a New Era,” which city officials described as a sweeping blueprint to tackle New York City’s deepening housing crisis.
Block by Block details how the city will build 200,000 new affordable homes and preserve another 200,000 affordable homes over the next decade, backed by a historic $22-billion capital investment in housing over the next five years. The investment is paired with an ambitious land-use agenda to boost housing production across the five boroughs and innovative new financing tools to build and preserve affordable housing more quickly and efficiently.
“At a moment when working people are being pushed out of the city they built, New York cannot afford half-measures or delays,” said Mayor Mamdani. “This plan meets the housing crisis with the urgency it demands. We are setting the most ambitious housing production and preservation targets in the city’s modern history—and backing them up with investments to match—while also protecting tenants and homeowners, investing in public housing and ensuring the workers building that housing have good-paying, safe jobs.”
The housing proposal also calls for the Mamdani administration to double the size of the Open Door program to expand affordable homeownership opportunities and launch a new program called “Our Home” to create permanently affordable co-ops for working class New Yorkers. The plan includes a major overhaul of the city’s response to code and heat complaints, including allowing tenants to schedule some HPD inspections and coordinating “roof-to-cellar” inspection days at buildings with organized tenants.
The city will also launch an interagency planning effort in the Bronx to address persistent issues around housing quality, public health and economic inequality in the borough.
Block by Block also lays out the administration’s vision for NYCHA, including the largest city capital investment in NYCHA in recent history. The administration will also pursue a renewed role for NYCHA as a public developer, using new financing and development tools to bring in revenue, improve campuses and build new housing across the city.
The plan also centers on assisting the workers building New York’s future housing. The Mamdani administration will seek to implement the Construction Justice Act to establish a $40-per-hour minimum wage and benefit standard for construction workers on city-financed projects and explore project labor agreements (PLA) for targeted affordable housing developments. The administration will also establish the city’s first Mayor’s Committee on Construction Safety.
Published: May 26, 2026.