Will new affordable housing come to NW Bronx?

With Mayor Bill de Blasio recently calling for 80,000 new affordable housing units in the city, local elected officials are starting to weigh in on how to pursue that mammoth task.

There could be overlap between the mayor’s plans and a raft of proposals from state Sen. Jeff Klein, whose district includes Riverdale. The mayor shied away from specifics in his Feb. 3 state of the city address, in which housing was a central theme. But Mr. Klein and his group of breakaway Democrats, which have a coalition with majority Republicans in the Senate, earlier this year launched a sweeping agenda with a number of housing proposals.

Those include $650 million for a new version of the Mitchell-Lama affordable housing program and $25 million in tax credits for developers to build “middle class units.” Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget for the coming year includes a proposal similar to Mr. Klein’s own tax credit proposal — but to the tune of $100 million.

Should the legislature pass those proposals, they could go a long way toward helping the mayor meet his housing goals, which include preserving 120,000 affordable units over the next 10 years. In a recent phone interview, Mr. Klein said he has had numerous conversations on the topic with Mr. De Blasio and administration officials. But he said he thinks the mayor is placing emphasis on housing for low-income New Yorkers at the expense of the middle class.

“I’m all for building more and more housing — more affordable housing,” he said. “I think first and foremost, we have to concentrate our efforts on middle class housing, because that’s who we’re losing.”

Mr. De Blasio has picked several neighborhoods for rezoning, one of them near Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, to accommodate new mixed-income housing units. Mr. Klein said it was outside his purview to suggest potential sites for the new Mitchell-Lama units he is seeking.

However, Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. is expected to make major announcements about the Bronx’s role in the mayor’s affordable housing vision at Mr. Diaz’s state of the borough address, scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 19.