Shelter Repair Scorecard Shows Building Violations in Non-Cluster Homeless Shelters Down 75 Percent Since January 2016

August 12, 2016

July Scorecard shows 11 percent decline in open violations at non-cluster shelters over the last month

NEW YORK––Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced that the Shelter Repair Squad and shelter providers have cut outstanding building code violations at non-cluster shelters by an additional 11 percent over the last month, as reported in the July Shelter Repair Scorecard. Since the end of January 2016, open violations in non-cluster shelters are down 75 percent.

 “City workers and shelter providers have done an incredible job of finding and fixing more than 14,000 violations in our homeless shelters. Every violation we are able to repair is a step forward in providing a safe, clean environment for homeless New Yorkers to recover and return to housing. There is almost nothing left but longer term capital repairs, and we will tackle those also, but the nature of the work means it will take longer,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Now we are going to apply the same tough approach on the cluster shelters. We’re going to continue our inspections, keep up repairs and continue the move away from cluster sites, all while working to get more New Yorkers access to stable, affordable housing.”

Total violations at non-cluster shelters were 2,607 at the end of July, compared to 2,944 at the end of June, a decline of 11 percent over the past month.

• Total violations at non-cluster shelters have declined by 75 percent since the end of January 2016, down from a total of 10,474.
• Including new violations found and cleared, 14,062 violations in non-cluster shelters have been cleared so far this year.
• City agencies completed 8,988 inspections in 2016 YTD, more than all inspections completed throughout 2015 (8,665). In July alone, there were 1,211 inspections completed.
• Cluster shelters continue to have the most issues with a total of 14,022 violations at the end of July, compared to 14,604 at the end of January. The number of open violations among cluster shelters increased in July compared to June, reflecting the increased inspection and enforcement efforts there as part of the previously announced cluster phase out plan. The City continues to work on identifying cluster sites for closure.

The Shelter Repair Scorecard lists conditions at all homeless shelters in New York City that do not meet applicable regulations, and makes it possible to track progress in resolving them. An analysis of the remaining open non-cluster violations indicates that more than 80 percent will require significant repairs or capital work, which will take substantially longer to complete.

Cluster shelters are groups of individual apartments in larger buildings, and the violation total includes all the violations in each building, not those solely relating to the cluster units. The administration has announced a plan to phase out the use of cluster shelters – where the majority of the violations are found. As the City ends the use of cluster shelters, returning them to the market so that the apartments can serve as low-rent housing, it will insist that building owners bring their buildings up to code and will work to ensure that they remain part of the City’s rent-regulated stock or enter an affordability program.

The scorecard can be accessed here.