During fiscal ’12, the city financed 16,502 units, of which 2,734 were new construction. More than 250 of the new units were for-sale apartments within multifamily buildings, while another 350 units fell under the Inclusionary Housing program, designed to preserve and promote affordable housing within neighborhoods where zoning has been modified to encourage new development.

The 12-month tally is 2,000 more than the Bloomberg administration projected, according to a release. It also underscores a point made in a recent report by the Independent Budget Office: that although the NHMP would likely achieve its target of financing 165,000 units, it would probably create fewer new units than originally anticipated.

IBO’s report projected that new units would comprise 24% of the FY12 total. In fact new construction accounted for less than 20% of the year’s total, although the total of 45,759 new units since the NHMP’s inception represents more than 30% of the tally, or closer to the ratio of 64% preservation to 36% new that the program calls for.

Since the program began, Manhattan has seen the most NHMP activity, with 47,553 affordable units added to existing stock. Next is the Bronx with 43,721 units, followed by Brooklyn with 34,668, Queens with 12,706 and Staten Island with 2,272.

Separately, a group of contractors active in the affordable housing arena has raised the red flag on a bill that’s set to come before the City Council next week. Intro 730, which has sponsorship from more than 30 Council Members, would impose new wage-reporting requirements that the coalition says are onerous.

“As business owners in the affordable housing industry and MWBEs, we adamantly oppose the underpayment of workers in all instances, and fervently support every effort by government to weed out dishonest actors," the group of 38 local contractors wrote in a letter to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. "However, Intro 730, a bill that’s been touted as the solution to enforce fairness and accountability in the affordable housing arena, will not ensure fair wages or guarantee greater transparency. Rather, this bill will impose a tremendous and overwhelming administrative burden on us – local, small, and medium-sized businesses – threatening our survival and ability to compete in the market."

According to published reports, Quinn’s office maintains that the bill would simply require contractors to give the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development wage information that they’re already required to collect under state law. The contractors’ letter to Quinn was reported Thursday in the New York Post and last month in the New York Daily News.