(New York City, April 19, 2005) Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. kept the City's promise to New Yorkers by proposing to create a New York City Housing Trust Fund using Battery Park City surplus revenues. This Fund would be used to create and preserve 4,500 affordable housing units throughout the next four years.

Battery Park City was created in the late 1960's as a vision for all income New Yorkers. Due to the City's fiscal crisis in the 1970's, an agreement was made to divert surplus revenues to build housing for low-and-moderate income households elsewhere in New York City. Thirty years later, only $143 million of the over $1 billion in revenue was spent on building affordable housing.

The Battery Park City Surplus Campaign was launched on November 15, 2004 to demand Mayor Bloomberg, Comptroller Thompson, and Governor Pataki to use the surplus revenue as it was intended to be used, build affordable housing for all New Yorkers. Over 7,000 community leaders, groups and residents joined together to rally on Feb. 2, 2005 to remind the City of that promise. On March 15, 2005, AAFE joined housing advocates and organizations headed by ANHD (Association for Neighborhood Housing Development) organized a "move-in" rally in the heart of Battery Park City to demonstrate that all income New Yorkers were meant to be living there.

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