Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Department of Housing Preservation and Development

Department of Housing Preservation and Development

  • At City Council Budget Hearing, Commissioner Previews Adams Housing Plan

    Housing (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    In his State of the City speech last month, Mayor Eric Adams promised that he would in the coming weeks release a comprehensive housing plan to address perhaps the most intractable problem facing New York. At a hearing of the City Council on Monday, housing officials from his administration outlined the main principles of that agenda and gave a preview of the city's broad approach to building affordable and supportive housing, preserving public housing, and tackling the homelessness crisis.  

    Monday’s hearing concerned the

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  • When Owners Neglect Buildings and Don’t Pay Taxes, Tenants Suffer – The City Can Help

    may bdb np dev

    (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photography Office)


    As Benjamin Franklin famously wrote, "in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." This is true for property owners who maintain their buildings and pay their property taxes in full each year, but for the few who do not, there can be consequences, including foreclosure.

    Often, the failure to pay taxes is indicative of a litany of issues, such as physical deterioration of the building. Imagine being a resident of a tax-delinquent building: you've worked hard to pay your rent, and you

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  • Allegations of Tenant Harassment in Bushwick Spotlight Issues with City Enforcement, State Rent Laws

    431 bleecker

    tenants Hunter & Corchado outside 431 Bleecker (via vimeo)


    On a Wednesday last month, a group of community activists and politicians including Assemblymember Maritza Davila and then-State Senate candidate Julia Salazar gathered outside an apartment building in Brooklyn, where they protested a landlord in front of one of several properties he owns.

    “Our landlord -- terrible, terrible, terrible,” said Ermelinda Corchado, a tenant who was moved to tears as she told the crowd of more than

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  • City Council Tenant Advocate Bill Met with Resistance

    Councilmember Helen Rosenthal

    Council Member Helen Rosenthal (photo: Samar Khurshid/Gotham Gazette)


    The City Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings on Wednesday heard more than a dozen bills that would enhance tenant protections and combat abuses by landlords. Among those proposals was one that would create a new ombudsman within the Department of Buildings whose responsibility would be to prioritize the welfare of tenants when property owners and builders apply for construction permits.

    The bill, ...

  • Flushing’s Affordable Housing at Risk

    Flushing town hall


    Last week, the New York City Council approved the contested East New York rezoning - the first of 15 proposed neighborhood rezonings through which Mayor de Blasio intends to advance his goal of preserving 120,000 units of affordable housing and producing 80,000 new units at below-market rents. Described by some as a rezoning taking place “under the

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  • Wary of Gentrification, East Harlem Braces for Rapid Change

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    Hank Prussing's mural, The Spirit of East Harlem (via @ManhattanCB11)


    Pearl Barkley moved to East Harlem in the 1950s, when she was six years old. Her family lived in the Jefferson Houses on 115th Street, where she lives today and works as an organizer with Community Voices Heard, an economic justice advocacy non-profit.

    “Many people remember the fires, the abandoned boarded up buildings, and the people who left,” Barkley said in an interview. Essential services began disappearing from the

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  • De Blasio Housing Chief Looks to Allay Fears, Build Support for Rezonings

    Been NY Law School

    New York Law School's Ross Sandler & HPD's Vicki Been (Phoebe Rosen for NYLS)


    Vicki Been, commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said that the city’s affordable housing plan is on track and responded to critics on Friday, emphasizing that the plan is less about simply building units and more about “making neighborhoods better.”

    Speaking at a breakfast hosted by the CityLand publication of New York Law School, Been gave a balanced, thorough

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