Ahmad backs city housing plan, presses for senior, LGBTQ+ and climate fixes

By AI, Created 8:56 PM UTC, May 29, 2026, /AGP/ – Furhan Ahmad, a New York State Assembly candidate in District 66, praised Mayor Mamdani’s new housing plan for its affordability, tenant, and anti-landlord measures. He also said the plan leaves major gaps on aging in place, LGBTQ+ housing needs, supportive housing, and lower Manhattan flood protection.

Why it matters: - Ahmad said the city’s housing strategy could move New York toward more affordable homes, stronger tenant protections, and faster repairs to a broken housing system. - He argued the plan still misses needs that hit Assembly District 66 hardest, especially older adults, LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, supportive housing residents, and waterfront communities facing flood risk.

What happened: - Furhan Ahmad, candidate for New York State Assembly in District 66, released a statement on May 29, 2026, responding to Mayor Mamdani’s Block by Block: The Housing Plan for A New Era. - Ahmad praised the plan’s commitment to 200,000 new affordable homes, expansion of Right to Counsel, the Fix the City enforcement program, and SPEED reforms to reduce bureaucratic delays. - Ahmad also backed the plan’s support for the SAFER Homes Act and the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, or COPA. - Ahmad welcomed the proposed $100 million city-backed insurance program for regulated housing, the Construction Justice Act’s $40-an-hour wage and benefits floor for workers on city-financed projects, and the new Back Home Unit for residents displaced by fires and disasters. - Ahmad said the plan correctly identifies that neighborhoods such as the West Village are losing housing as wealthy owners combine apartments faster than new units are built.

The details: - District 66 includes Greenwich Village, the West Village, SoHo, NoHo, TriBeCa, Hudson Square, Battery Park City, and the Meatpacking District. - Ahmad said the plan increases senior housing production by 20% and adds intergenerational housing pilots, but does not address current seniors who need help staying in their homes. - He called for an aging-in-place strategy that would include retrofits for accessibility, expanded home care coordination, and community-based services. - Ahmad said the plan omits LGBTQ+ housing vulnerability, the displacement of queer community institutions, and the needs of LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness. - He called for protections for LGBTQ+ elders, resources for trans New Yorkers facing housing discrimination, and support for community-based service providers such as the Ali Forney Center. - Ahmad said the plan expands supportive housing production and creates a Supportive Housing Preservation Program. - He also pointed to the plan’s goal of cutting the vacancy rate in City-funded supportive housing to 5% by the end of 2026. - Ahmad said thousands of supportive housing units remain vacant while more than 100,000 New Yorkers sleep in shelters each night. - He said the placement pipeline still faces lease-up delays and duplicative inspections. - Ahmad said the plan’s climate section focuses on the Jewel Streets in East New York, but does not give lower Manhattan a parallel coastal resilience strategy. - He said Battery Park City, TriBeCa, and the West Village coastline remain among the city’s most flood-vulnerable areas. - Ahmad said his experience as an FDNY firefighter during Hurricane Sandy showed the need to integrate coastal resilience into housing policy.

Between the lines: - Ahmad is trying to balance praise for the mayor’s plan with a targeted case that District 66 needs specific add-ons, not just citywide housing goals. - His strongest critique is that housing policy cannot stop at new construction if the district’s existing residents, institutions, and waterfront neighborhoods are left exposed. - The remarks also position supportive housing, LGBTQ+ displacement, and flood protection as political issues that Albany and City Hall both need to address.

What’s next: - Ahmad said the next step is stronger state-level coordination to remove bottlenecks in supportive housing placements and deliver the funding and accountability needed to move tenants in faster. - He is also calling for the city and state to build an aging-in-place plan and a climate resilience strategy for lower Manhattan as part of housing policy. - Ahmad urged the administration to make LGBTQ+ housing security visible in future housing plans.

The bottom line: - Ahmad supports the city’s housing push, but says District 66 needs a more complete plan for the people already living there, not just the units still to be built. - Visit us on social media