In tweets, press conferences, and an awkward, bass-thumping MTV-style tour of his Gracie Mansion crib, Mayor Eric Adams dubbed last week "housing week," a term the mayor seems to have coined specifically to tout his administration's housing accomplishments.
During housing week, Adams made some bold claims: that his administration has "created, preserved, or planned" 426,800 homes for New Yorkers, that it will produce more housing than both the Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio administrations combined, and that it represents the "most pro-housing administration" in all of New York City history.
"I don't know how many times we have to say it, this is the most pro-housing administration in the history of the city and we're building affordable housing in the process," Adams said on Friday. "The numbers don't lie."
Numbers don't lie, but Hizzoner's mathematics do require a few mental backflips and some creative addition before they make complete sense. And it's more accurate to say Adams is "pro-housing production," versus, say, "pro-renter." He refused to carry out laws passed by the City Council in 2023 that would have made more New Yorkers eligible for rental assistance through the City's housing voucher program, CityFHEPS, and under his mayoralty, a state comptroller audit found that delays and poor oversight made it more difficult for CityFHEPS renters to find housing. Meanwhile, rent-stabilized tenants saw rent hikes each year during the Adams administration, which Cea Weaver, the director of the New York State Tenant Bloc, directly blamed on a "corrupt and incompetent" Adams.
But putting all of that aside, we at Hell Gate decided to take a closer look at the claims Adams made during his housing week tour, and whether Adams will go down in history as the most pro-housing mayor this city has ever seen.
Subscribe to read the full story
Become a paid subscriber to Hell Gate to access all of our posts.
Subscribe