Mayor Bill de Blasio put heavy focus on the city’s need to expand and preserve affordable housing options during his second State of the City address Tuesday.
Speaking at Baruch College in Flatiron the mayor repeatedly emphasized the need to move towards a more affordable New York, noting that in 2014, 56 percent of rental households in the city were spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing.
"If we fail to be a city for everyone, we risk losing what makes New York," De Blasio said.
The mayor has established a goal of saving or creating 200,000 affordable units over 10 years.
Along with that he's pledging free legal services to protect tenants from predatory landlords and he aims to establish housing zones for specific communities.
Last year, the mayor says the city saved and preserved more than 17,000 affordable units - enough to house nearly 42,000 people.
Another goal on the mayor's agenda is to build 1,500 affordable spaces for artists to live and work by 2024.
The mayor also wants to try to end homelessness among military veterans by the end of this year.
De Blasio said in conjunction with reducing the cost of housing, raising people's income will help and called for the city's minimum wage to be increased to $13 an hour.
In addition to housing and income, another major initiative announced by the mayor Tuesday is the creation of a new citywide ferry service to connect underserved areas.
The plan would link together existing East River routes with new landings in Astoria, the Rockaways, South Brooklyn, Soundview and the Lower East Side and cost the same as a MetroCard swipe on the subway or a city bus.
It’s expected to launch in 2017.
The mayor will outline how he plans to pay for it all when he gives his preliminary budget presentation on Monday.