Stringer rips Blaz on housing

Controller Scott Stringer — a potential 2021 mayoral candidate — blasted City Hall Thursday for not doing enough to attack the affordable housing crisis that’s particularly hurting the lowest income New Yorkers.

“The current plan is simply out of line with where we need to build,” Stringer said in announcing what he called a more aggressive effort to find housing for those who can least afford it. “While we have to make sure all New Yorkers have access to affordable housing, we are not putting our money where it will make the greatest impact.”

The controller started with praise but switched to criticism of Mayor de Blasio’s vow to build or preserve 300,000 affordable units.

He cheered the mayor’s plan as the “most ambitious” since Mayor Ed Koch built thousands of affordable units in the ’80s, but took issue with his plan to steer few of the units to New Yorkers whose incomes are the smallest.

Stringer estimated that more than 500,000 New Yorkers are either “extremely low income” households, earning less than $28,170 per year, or “very low income,” earning less than $46,950 per year. Yet de Blasio’s housing plan targets only 72,000 units for those households.

“They’re actually working New Yorkers: the home health aide for our aging parents, the cashier at the supermarket, the person who empties the trash at the office. People we ... rely on every day,” he said.

Stringer noted more than half of the units are going to households making up to $75,000 for a family of three. Just over 10% are going to households with the “extremely low incomes.”

Mayoral spokeswoman Jane Meyer defended de Blasio’s approach.

“From creating affordable housing at record levels, to rent freezes and free lawyers for tenants facing eviction, this administration is fighting this crisis with every available tool – not just the housing plan being looked at by the Controller,” she said.