NEW DATA: Debt in NYC Squeezing Working Class Families as Affordability Crisis Worsens
Event Marks the Launch of “Affordable NYC Now,” A Joint Economic Agenda from TCF and Protect Borrowers the Mamdani Administration Can Act on Today
May 21, 2026 | New York, NY — Today, The Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers convened key policymakers from across New York City to discuss new ideas about how to make New York more affordable for families, workers, and small businesses. Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr., and Councilmember Harvey Epstein were among the leaders from across the city that joined to discuss creative, ready-to-go strategies for the Mamdani administration to tackle the affordability crisis.
“Right now, governments at every level are experiencing a crisis of confidence and for good reason: for too long, our elected leaders have not been responsive to the needs of their constituents,” said Julie Morgan, President of The Century Foundation. “The Mamdani administration is taking a new approach to governing and, with the ideas we released today, can deliver an affordable New York in every borough, on every block, and in every home to show people how their leaders can work for them.”
“New Yorkers aren’t drowning in debt because they made bad decisions. They’re drowning because rent keeps rising, groceries keep getting more expensive, and wages don’t keep up. Credit cards are how working New Yorkers keep the lights on,” said Winston Berkman-Breen, Legal Director of Protect Borrowers. “The City didn’t cause this crisis, but it has the power to fight back. The proposals we’re releasing today can be implemented right now, without a bigger budget, without new legal authority, and without waiting for Washington or Albany to act.”
“As Commissioner of DCWP, I spent years going after junk fees, predatory landlords, wage theft, and more. I know what’s possible when city government decides to stand up for people. The proposals we’re releasing today are grounded in tools and authority the city already has, and the Mamdani Administration has shown it’s ready to use them,” said Lorelei Salas, Senior Fellow at Protect Borrowers and Visiting Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation.
The event formally launched Affordable NYC Now, a new project from The Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers that brings together leading experts, advocates, and organizers to build policy solutions to make NYC truly affordable. During the event, the groups released the first seven proposals, which focus on lowering costs. Additional proposals, focused on holding corporations accountable and making government work, will be released in subsequent weeks. A full list of the first proposals is linked below.
Alongside the event, TCF and Protect Borrowers released new zip-code level data that shows just how deep the affordability crisis in New York City goes. The report and visuals tell a story that is all too familiar for New York families—but often overlooked by policymakers.
Between 2018 and 2025, average monthly debt payments soared in working-class, outer-borough neighborhoods. While debt payments increased only moderately across Manhattan, individuals in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island on average went from spending roughly $282 per month repaying debt to $344—and in some neighborhoods, surpassing $500 or more. Further, we find that auto loan payments doubled and credit card payments climbed more than 50 percent for New Yorkers in many working-class, outer-borough neighborhoods.
The seven proposals discussed at the event and included in the first report include:
- The Penny Price Pharmacy Model, which would leverage the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program to offer prescription drugs—sometimes for as little as a penny per dose—to uninsured and underinsured New Yorkers through NYC Health + Hospitals, at no cost to taxpayers. This is especially urgent as federal cuts under H.R. 1 threaten to strip health coverage from up to 1.5 million New York State residents. By Emma Freer, American Economic Liberties Project
- Preserving Affordable Homeownership, a three-part plan to protect working-class homeowners from foreclosure by fixing the administration of emergency grants, updating outdated income limits for senior and disabled homeowners’ property tax exemptions, and ensuring that vacant apartments in affordable HDFC co-ops can be resold after a shareholder’s death. By Mackenzie Lew and Shivani Jacelon, Mobilization for Justice
- A Three-Pronged Plan to Increase Financial and Housing Stability, which would remove credit-score barriers from the housing application process, cap rent increases for subsidized housing residents through a tiered rent model, and create a city-backed loan loss reserve fund enabling credit unions to offer affordable emergency loans of up to $2,500. By Elise Nussbaum, Fitzgerald Restituyo, Tamika Howell, and Ivania Mora,Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners
- Redirecting Support to Strengthen Small Businesses, calling for an audit of city subsidies that disproportionately benefit large corporations, paired with new tax incentives—modeled on the successful FRESH program—to encourage landlords to offer fair, long-term leases to independent small businesses. By Lindsey Vigoda, Small Business Majority
- Powering Affordability Through Solar and Bill Relief, a plan to streamline access to underused energy assistance programs, double the city’s distributed solar goal to 2 GW by 2035, and extend the Solar and Storage Property Tax Abatement to affordable housing and nonprofits. By Kate Selden, Solar One
- Community Choice Energy for NYC, a proposal for the city to pursue a community choice program—the mechanism by which nearly every U.S. city that has reached 100 percent renewable electricity did so—giving residents and small businesses an alternative to for-profit utility monopolies that have driven bills up 37 percent in five years. By John Farrell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
- Public Homeowners Insurance, which would expand the city’s new public insurance program for affordable housing landlords into the homeowners and renters market, where a public option could charge roughly 33 percent less than the private market by cutting insurer profits and overhead. By Brian Shearer, Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator
Contributing authors of Affordable NYC Now’s policy proposals are affiliated with the following: American Economic Liberties Project, CAMBA Legal Services, Community Service Society of New York, Fines and Fees Justice Center, Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Legal Aid Society, Make the Road NY, Mobilization for Justice, National Institute for Workers Rights, Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners, New York Legal Assistance Group, NYU Wagner Labor Initiative, Small Business Majority, Solar One, The Institute for College Access and Success, UC Berkeley Law Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, and Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator.
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