Mayor Adams and Chief Housing Officer Katz unveil housing plans (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)

Facing an affordable housing and homelessness crisis, Mayor Eric Adams has set an ambitious goal to build 500,000 new homes, rehabilitate a collapsing public housing system, and transform social service delivery.

While most attention is paid to policies at the city and state levels, Adams is relying in part on action from Washington, D.C. that could bring in billions of dollars in subsidies and make it easier for New Yorkers to access

City Council Member Alexa Avilés leads the NYCHA budget hearing (photo: William Alatriste/NYC Council)

The New York City Housing Authority is facing a fiscal crisis as rent revenue has plummeted in the wake of the pandemic, affecting its operational budget, constraining its ability to hire personnel, and forcing it to suspend dozens of infrastructure improvement projects. Amid the city's larger affordable housing and homelessness crisis, the public housing authority is also struggling with a worsening ability to get vacant units repaired and filled with new tenants, a problem apparently

Governor Hochul makes a NYCHA announcement (photo: Governor's Office)

After decades of neglect and underinvestment at every level of government, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) continues to struggle to fund its annual operating expenses and massive infrastructure repair needs.

While the city and state have made some recent investments in the public housing authority’s capital infrastructure needs, the pandemic blew a hole in its operating budget as rent revenue plummeted and its roughly 500,000 residents were

At NYCHA housing (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

When New York ended its moratorium on evictions a year ago, many people—from tenants to housing advocates to the public at large—braced for mass eviction filings in housing courts. One year later, tens of thousands of tenants in public housing are still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

When the federal and state governments provided funds to help tenants pay rent arrears, economically-stressed residents of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) were an afterthought. Though

A NYCHA building in Queens (photo: Governor's Office)

In July 2020, the New York City Housing Authority published “A Blueprint for Change” to address decades of organizational mismanagement, financial instability, and repeated crises that were affecting the health and wellbeing of the city’s roughly 500,000 public housing residents. Last year, NYCHA achieved one of the crucial steps from that plan as the state

Work at NYCHA (photo: Demetrius Freeman/Mayoral Photography Office)

This article is published in partnership with New York Focus
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When Hurricane Sandy landed in New York City in 2012, it hit public housing hard. The sprawling Red Hook Houses, on the Brooklyn waterfront, lost power for weeks. And the recovery was slow: major renovations didn’t start until almost five years after the storm. When

(photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

UPDATE (9/19/22): Mayor Adams and Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser on Monday announced the new "Big Apple Connect" program at NYCHA’s Langston Hughes Houses in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The program will provide free internet and cable to 300,000 residents at 200 NYCHA developments by the end of 2023. The piece below has been updated with additional information based on the announcement. 

Mayor Eric Adams announced a new program on Monday to provide free high-speed internet and basic cable TV to hundreds of thousands of public housing

NYCHA left out in the cold again (photo: Governor's Office)

As the Democrat-led federal government moves toward passage of another massive spending package, billions of dollars in much-needed funding to repair crumbling public housing, particularly at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), has again been left out.

The U.S. Senate on Sunday passed the Inflation Reduction Act, a major spending bill that will invest hundreds of billions in climate action and clean energy, cut health care costs and raise taxes, reducing the overall federal deficit. But the bill excluded investments in

NYCHA recovery and resiliency (photo: NYCHA)

Growing up in Section 8 housing on the Lower East Side in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I saw how large an impact the city’s infrastructure investments could have. From the restoration of Hamilton Fish pool across the street from my apartment that gave us a place to cool off in the summer, to the major renovation of the Williamsburg Bridge that made it easier for us to visit our relatives in Brooklyn, to the much-needed renovations at Bellevue Hospital that improved the quality of healthcare for our neighborhood.

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Housing to be built (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

New York’s housing crisis is at a fever pitch – and there is new data to prove it. In a newreport, the national pro-housing group Up For Growth found that New York State’s housing shortage worsened dramatically during the 2010s.

The Empire State was

NYCHA CEO Outlines Next Steps for Recently-Passed Preservation Trust

NYCHA Eastchester Garden Houses, The Bronx (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

Update: Governor Hochul signed legislation to expand public housing access to formerly incarcerated individuals on December 23, 2022.

A bill that lawmakers say could ensure more people leaving incarceration have access to public housing passed the State Legislature earlier this year and is awaiting the governor's signature. But housing and criminal justice advocates say the legislation, while "well-intentioned," may contain a

An Albany rally for abortion rights (photo: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

State lawmakers voted on legislation late into the night Thursday, the scheduled end of the legislative session, and while the State Senate finished its business the Assembly continued passing bills throughout Friday and into Saturday.

A number of major deals were reached in the final week as the session came to a crescendo, while other marquee proposals fell by the wayside.

And as of Saturday morning, with the Senate on break but the Assembly still wrapping up business, the fate of at least two

Housing in focus (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

State lawmakers clearly understand that New York faces an emergency-level housing crisis and have acted accordingly: adopting a five-year housing plan to invest $25 billion in affordable and supportive housing across the state. But the job is not over, there are several important housing bills under consideration that would help New York City fight the housing crisis.

In the final days of the state legislative session, Albany has a chance to help the city

Mayor Adams (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday released a $99.7 billion executive budget proposal, a $1.2 billion increase from his February preliminary budget. Though Adams committed billions more in funding for housing and hundreds of millions for the parks department, he nonetheless failed to abide by major pledges he made while running for mayor last year. 

As a mayoral candidate, Adams made sweeping promises for how he would lead the city. But on two fronts he was particularly

Repairs at NYCHA (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

More than three decades ago, my family was one of the first to move into Washington Heights Rehab, a New York City Housing Authority development. It’s in this development where I’ve since raised my three children and it’s the place that I’ve always called home. But like other NYCHA developments across the five boroughs, our building became the subject of disrepair, deferred maintenance, and difficult living conditions.

That’s until an initiative led by a

A groundbreaking in East Harlem (photo: John McCarten/City Council)

(Housing projects and tenements surround the $6 billion Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 planned route (MTA Capital Division))

Plans are advancing rapidly for the 1.5 mile Second Avenue (Q) Subway from 96th to 125...

New York City (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

December 14, 2021 - Max Politics Podcast: What's Next for New York's Pro-Housing Movement

As the Bill de Blasio administration ends and the Eric Adams administration is set to begin, New York City's housing politics are in flux. Housing affordability and homelessness in the city remain related crises; the city's housing production has come nowhere near keeping up with its population and job growth; and public housing is crumbling. In the

Housing repairs (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

When President Biden and Congress first announced the details of the Build Back Better Act, they sent a loud and clear signal to housing advocates and stakeholders that help was finally on the way. The $330 billion investment into the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and $30 billion into the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program both represented the most significant plan in generations to address a worsening housing crisis.

Now, however, Washington

NYCHA's Eastchester Garden Houses (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

For decades, government officials, advocates, and residents have debated the best path forward for New York City public housing while conditions have deteriorated and the price tag for urgent capital repairs and operational costs has boomed.

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) faces an estimated capital need of $40 billion to address mold, lead paint, broken boilers and elevators, and a host of other needs critical to stable

NYCHA (photo: governor's office)

The New York City Housing Authority, home to more than 400,000 New Yorkers, is falling apart. Long plagued by mold, lead paint, structural cracks, and failing elevators, boilers, and locks, the authority of over 177,000 units in 335 developments across the five boroughs is in need of a staggering $40 billion in physical repairs over the next ten years and faces an immediate operating budget deficit of about $300 million.

Long the victim of official

NYCHA Chair Greg Russ (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

*This story was published in partnership with New York Focus.*

With a week left in the legislative session, New York lawmakers shelved a city-backed plan that aimed to revamp 25,000 NYCHA apartments.

On May 21, with just ten working days to go in this year’s session, New York lawmakers added a major item to their docket: a ...

(top: Shaun Donovan, Kathryn Garcia, Andrew Yang, Ray McGuire; bottom: Eric Adams, Dianne Morales, Maya Wiley, Scott Stringer)

Eight leading Democratic candidates in the race for mayor appeared in the first televised mayoral forum of the 2021 race to share their policy proposals for tackling housing and homelessness in New York City. The discussion had a particular focus on the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, which has added a new layer of concern regarding homelessness, evictions, rent and mortgage debt, housing segregation, affordable and

Senator Chuck Schumer at City Hall (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)

As Mayor Bill de Blasio celebrated the passage of President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which will deliver $6 billion in direct aid to New York City government and many additional billions to New Yorkers, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer had more good tidings to offer as he promised that a massive infrastructure program is next on the agenda. 

Biden has proposed a $2 trillion “Build Back Better” plan to invest in infrastructure and combat climate change. It’s

NYCHA (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography)

We all know the story of deplorable living conditions and general dysfunction. Many of us were captivated by details of the wreckage and the shocking level of disrepair. We sympathized with the residents, but scratched our heads wondering what level of madness allowed such unnecessary suffering when there were ample means to alleviate it.

Although this describes the Grey Gardens of East Hampton, which became infamous in the 1970s and was depicted in films and a Broadway musical, it also