Chair Cabán on supportive housing vacancy reduction working group

I want to follow up on some of Councilmember Resto's questions.

The mayor recently released the block by block housing report and it details also some things around

The administration convening an internal working group with DOHMH and DSS and HPD to improve the application and placement process for supportive housing with the goal of reducing that vacancy, the supportive housing vacancy to 5% by the end of 2026.

Can you tell me what DOHMH's contribution to that working group is?

How many employees are dedicated to this group?

What specifics are being discussed to improve and expedite the application and placement process for supportive housing?

Yeah, thank you for this question, Chair.

So we are indeed part of this interagency working group with us, with HPD, DSS, and you're exactly right, targeting a 5% vacancy rate by the end of this year.

The two things that we're trying to do together across these three agencies are, number one, faster unsealing, and then the second is to try to reduce the documentation burden.

We shouldn't let paperwork stand in the way of somebody getting into a home that is available for them.

Let me hand it over to Commissioner Jamie Nichols to share a little bit more about the working group.

Yeah, we'd love to know, you know, what the personnel allocation is.

Yeah.

We've got three staff in the work group.

Okay.

And do you think that the city is on track to, based on what you're seeing so far, to reduce the supportive housing vacancy rate to that 5% by the end of the year?

Yes, I do.

That's great.

Will additional funding be allocated to DOHMH for supportive housing in fiscal years 27 to 28?

And if so, how much?

Obviously, we're talking about getting that vacancy rate down to 5% by the end of the year.

But I'm assuming the goal is to get to that zero vacancy rate.

And so what are the plans for beyond 2026?

So 27 to 28.

Are you anticipating extra funding there?

Yeah, so I don't think the vacancy work is necessarily a funding question.

Otherwise, I'd turn it to Erin here.

I wouldn't answer.

I think it's really about the things that the commissioner mentioned, right, on sealing apartments, reducing paperwork burden.

There's no cost associated with that, no new cost.

We are adding supportive housing units all the time.

We added 700 since last year.

Our MMR target is to get up to 14,000 by next fiscal year.

So the budget is always growing because we're always adding new units thanks to the open RFP.

We do, I just want to make a point about the vacancy rate.

I think a healthy system has vacancies as people are moving out and moving in, right?

Not everybody stays forever.

So the goal is not to get to get.

to zero.

I think the goal is to get, I think we're at a housing level.

Or I guess a better way to say it is the goal is to get anybody who is eligible for and needs supportive housing into a unit.

Sure.

And I think that's a development question.

I mean, we also want to get use of vacancies, but we need more apartments.

Yeah.