BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — When he was running for mayor last year, Zohran Mamdani pledged at a candidates’ forum to work with a coalition of interfaith groups to build 500,000 units of affordable housing in New York City over the next decade. 

Six months into Mayor Mamdani’s term, members of one group within the coalition gave him high marks for turning his attention to housing so early in his mayoralty after the release of his housing plan.  

However, they expressed concern over the type of housing and the number of units his administration is planning. 

“We need greater specificity on what he means by affordable housing,” said Father Bill Smith, a founding member of East Brooklyn Congregations (EBC), an organization composed of churches in neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Canarsie, Cypress Hills, and East New York.  

“We are very clear that it should be something that an individual of modest means can afford,” he added.  

EBC is a member of Metro IAF NY, an interfaith coalition that sponsored a mayoral forum at Queens College on Oct. 19, where then-candidate Mamdani pledged to work with Metro IAF NY.  

RELATED: Parishioners’ Growing Lament — We Can’t Afford ‘Affordable’ Housing

According to a 2024 report by the city comptroller, the average New Yorker spends between 33% and 54% of their monthly income on rent, depending on whether they live in a rent-stabilized unit or a market-rate unit.  

However, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines housing as affordable when it does not exceed 30% of a tenant’s income. 

“Block by Block: The Housing Plan for a New Era,” which the mayor released on May 26, lays out a blueprint to build 200,000 units and preserve another 200,000.  

“This plan meets the housing crisis with the urgency it demands,” the mayor said in a statement upon the release. 

Father Smith, who is retired and lives at Our Lady of Victory Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, said he is also concerned about the number of affordable housing units.  

“He keeps cutting down the number,” he explained. “It’s down to 200,000 units. We were talking 500,000.” 

Another issue is where housing would be built. A plan to rezone a 30,000-square-foot parking lot at the former Girls High School site at 475 Nostrand Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant and sell the property to a private developer has drawn the ire of community residents, who do not want the city to sell the property and instead want a green space created there. 

For EBC members, the controversy points out a flaw in the city’s approach. Rather than rezone property, the city should look at vacant lots, it said. 

“What’s important to understand is that the city has a number of vacant lots that are available currently under HPD (Department of Housing Preservation and Development), and those lots are all over the city, all over Brooklyn,” said Olivia Elee, a parishioner of St. Martin De Porres Parish in Bedford-Stuyvesant and an EBC member. “Those lots are immediately available to be developed for affordable housing.” 

Father Smith noted that the EBC presented a map of the vacant lots to the city “so they know exactly what’s out there.” 

In response to a request for comment, Matt Rauschenbach, the city’s deputy press secretary for housing, provided The Tablet with information about the mayor’s housing plan. 

On the question of affordability, the plan includes proposals for housing for “extremely low-income” renters and “very low-income” renters. 

For “extremely low-income” renters, HPD housing units would be created that a single adult making up to $34,000 a year would qualify for. A family of four with an income of up to $48,000 would also qualify. 

RELATED: Mamdani, Cuomo Pledge to Work With Interfaith Group to Build NYC Housing

Under “very low-income renters,” the salary range to qualify would be $35,000 for a single adult and $97,000 for a family of four. 

On developing housing on vacant lots, the mayor’s plan points out that Mamdani signed an executive order in January to create the Land Inventory Fast Track (LIFT) Task Force to “identify public sites that can produce 25,000 units over the next 10 years,” the plan states. 

Despite their concerns, EBC members are willing to be patient with Mamdani. 

“He is newly into the position of mayor … and we are waiting for the next steps,” Elee said. “And I think time will continue to show his commitment.”