The city is starting a program to buy vacant apartments to bolster its affordable-housing stock, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced in her annual State of the City speech yesterday.
The plan, which Mayor Bloomberg supports, would empower the city to buy unsold condos and co-ops and ensure they are resold as affordable units.
“Where developers have units they cannot sell, the city will negotiate the lowest possible price and make these homes affordable for middle-class families to rent or buy,” Quinn said at City Council chambers.
Details will be rolled out in the coming months, according to Quinn and Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Lieber.
Quinn vowed that the city would not end up being a landlord for homes in foreclosure, as it did in the 1970s.
“This is basically saying. ‘Let’s prevent that from happening,’ ” she said after the speech. “The point for us would definitely be not for us to become landlords.”
sgoldenberg@nypost.com