December 29, 2021

Dear Partners,

In 2014, the de Blasio Administration unveiled Housing New York, a comprehensive plan to create and preserve 200,000 high-quality, affordable residences over ten years – housing for almost half a million people. Many said it was impossible, but just last week, we announced that we have achieved that goal, two years ahead of schedule.

While our teams continue to close deals, we joined the Deputy Mayor to celebrate at 50 Penn, a 218-home affordable development in East New York Brooklyn, that includes 42 homes for formerly homeless New Yorkers and features a grocery store on the ground floor, a green roof, solar panels, and landscaped outdoor space for the residents. This is truly an incredible achievement that will change the lives of more than half a million New Yorkers. 
The numbers are an important metric for accountability, but they don’t tell the full story.  Behind each and every one of these affordable homes is a New Yorker – a parent, a grandparent, a teacher, a health care worker, a taxi driver, a waitress, an artist, a survivor of domestic violence, a person struggling with homelessness, mental health or substance abuse challenges – who has a chance to live a better, healthier life because they have a quality home they can afford. 

New Yorkers’ wide ranging and complex housing needs have required an ambitious, comprehensive, and compassionate policy response. Over the past eight years, we’ve rethought how we work across agencies and with communities. We set out to create more affordable housing at a wider range of incomes, with a special focus on homes for seniors, the formerly homeless, and those in need of supportive services; to protect the City’s past investments in affordable housing; to secure major reforms to the State’s rent stabilization laws and introduce new tools to combat harassment and displacement; to partner with communities to plan for the investments they most want to see in their neighborhoods;  and to require – not just encourage -- that whenever the City rezones for growth, a share of that housing is permanently affordable in order to ensure balanced growth, fair housing opportunity, and diverse neighborhoods.

As many of you may know, my last day as HPD Commissioner is December 31, 2021. It has been an honor to serve in this role, and as I look back, I am incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished and learned together. I am sharing with you, the Housing New York Final Report, which summarizes all of the progress we’ve made together over the past 8 years, a glimpse of which is outlined below.

I want to thank the thousands of public servants across Agencies, our elected officials, our counterparts in State and Federal government, and our many partners – the community based organizations, faith-based organizations, service providers, for-profit and non-profit developers, property owners, financial institutions, and philanthropies who have lent so much creativity, expertise, and dedication to tackling the city’s affordable housing challenges with us. 

As this administration comes to a close and I bid farewell to a job that has been a privilege of a lifetime, I have full assurance that the dedicated public servants and committed partners I have worked alongside for many years will continue to drive the good work forward.

Many thanks, and all the best wishes,

Louise

Louise Carroll
HPD Commissioner

Expanded Access to Affordable Housing Opportunities

• Deepened the affordability of Our Housing - 46% of our total production, more than 90,200 affordable homes serve New Yorkers earning less than $42,000.
• Created New Programs and Innovative Housing Models ranging from the ELLA Program, Open Door, and ANCP, which have created thousands of amazing rental and homeownership opportunities, to initiatives like Big Ideas for Small Lots and ShareNYC.
• Made the Marketing of Our Housing Fairer and More Efficient - more than 50 policy improvements and a new state-of-the-art Housing Connect lottery system have been introduced to help speed up the process of leasing up an affordable home while maintaining critical protections for applicants.
• Secured New Resources and advanced critical policy changes from the Federal government to help achieve our affordable housing goals.

Supported the Most Vulnerable New Yorkers

• Increased Housing and Services for Homeless New Yorkers by setting aside more apartments for formerly homeless New Yorkers and connecting more of these residents to services.
• Expanded Rental Assistance, a critical tool to combat homelessness, and launched the federally-funded Emergency Housing Voucher program.
• Redoubled Our Commitment to Supportive Housing – affordable housing with on-site services to meet the special needs of New Yorkers through the NYC 15/15 plan.
• Improved Housing Options for Seniors through a newly developed SARA program and a three-pronged strategy to help seniors age in place, build new senior affordable housing on underutilized land, and preserve existing senior developments.
• Served New Yorkers with Disabilities by creating more accessible apartments for those households, increasing eligibility and enrollment for the Disability Rent Increase Exemption, and better supporting affordable housing applicants with disabilities.

Kept New Yorkers in their Homes and Stabilized Properties in Distress

• Launched New Programs to Proactively Preserve Affordability - From Neighborhood Pillars to HomeFix, HPD leverages available data and robust community partnerships to stabilize distressed buildings and support residents.
• Safeguarded the Remaining Stock of Mitchell-Lama Housing through financial assistance and technical support needed to safeguard not just the affordability, but the long-term financial and physical health of these homes and apartments.
• Advanced NYCHA PACT, a partnership between NYCHA, HDC, and private and non-profit development partners to modernize NYCHA homes and ensure continued tenant protections.
• Protected Tenants from Harassment and Displacement through stronger rent stabilization protections, a citywide Right-to-Counsel initiative, new tenant support units at multiple Agencies, and improved coordination through the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.
• Launched New Initiatives to Respond to COVID-19 to move more families out of shelter and into-long term housing and keep vulnerable New Yorkers impacted by COVID-19 in their homes through initiatives like the Landlord-Tenant Mediation Project.

Promoted Healthy, Sustainable, Quality Housing

• Enhanced Enforcement and Outreach Efforts to Improve Housing Quality with initiatives to get ahead of lead, fight mold and pests, and inform New Yorkers about the Housing Maintenance Code.
• Set a High Bar for Affordable Housing Design by continually updating the Agency’s guidelines to maintain the highest standards for designing quality, healthy, sustainable, and equitable affordable housing, including the recent Broadband Where Feasible policy.
• Promoted Sustainability by supporting Passive House building standards, mandating Solar Where Feasible, launching the Green Housing Preservation Program, and more.
• Advanced Resiliency Efforts in Areas at Risk of the Impacts of Climate Change, including helping rebuild homes affected by Superstorm Sandy and the Resilient Edgemere neighborhood plan.

Advanced Fair Housing and Equity

• Launched Fair Housing Blueprint: Where We Live NYC, the culmination of a two-year planning process engaging hundreds of residents, over 150 community-based and advocacy organizations, and dozens of partner agencies. Already we have moved forward on key commitments in the five-year plan, including the rezoning of Gowanus and SoHo/NoHo, neighborhoods that have exceptional access to transit, schools, and job centers.
• Prioritized M/WBE and Non-Profit Partners to grow and diversify the affordable housing community through our M/WBE Build Up program, a dedicated pipeline of public sites for M/WBEs to bid on exclusively, the equitable ownership requirement, the dedication of the New York City Acquisition Fund to exclusively serve M/WBEs and nonprofit developers; the Pathways to Opportunity program, and more.

Fostered Diverse, Livable Neighborhoods

• Launched New Community-Centered Approach to Neighborhood Planning to work with residents to guide the City’s investments in affordable housing and neighborhood infrastructure.
• Advanced Policies for Equitable Neighborhood Growth, including the strongest Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) program in the nation.
• Spearheaded Neighborhood Plans and Rezonings in neighborhoods where land use changes and improvements to infrastructure and services could result in new housing and amenities.
• Transformed Public Sites with Placemaking Projects and partnered with other agencies to identify additional sites for affordable housing.

The Housing New York Final Report summarizes the work we’ve accomplished in partnership with all of you. Together, we’ve changed the DNA of New York City, but there is certainly more work to be done. Under the leadership of a new administration, the Agency looks forward to continuing to work together to serve New Yorkers today and to shape a more equitable city for generations to come. Thank you all, and Happy New Year!

Read the Full Report