Updated 09/19/2012 03:04 PM
City's Housing Costs Crunching Middle Class, Report Finds
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City Comptroller John Liu says middle class New Yorkers burdened with the high cost of living shouldn't expect help anytime soon.
A report from Liu says the impact of rising housing costs is expanding and hitting the middle class, not just low-income earners.
The report finds 30 percent of New Yorkers spend more than half of their income on housing.
Liu also says the city and federal plans to create more affordable housing are falling short. He adds the city has only created about one-third of the new affordable housing units it said it would.
In part, the comptroller says, “We need to invest more in affordable housing for middle-income renters so that our City is not only home to the very wealthy and the very poor but also to the vast majority of New Yorkers who fall in between.”
In response, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it's a good thing that so many people want to live in New York and adds he is working to help address the housing shortage.
He also says the city has almost finished its project to create or preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing.
The mayor concedes that it may not be enough, but says no one in the U.S. has ever had an affordable housing project of that scope.