Chair Lee questions OMB on HPD term sheets and capital project approval delays

Comments and feedback we've heard from a lot of the HPD-related housing projects is that there's a very arduous process that they have,

the term sheets that HPD has, and then they have to go through another very arduous, long process with OMB.

And so I know last year the council worked with the administration to update the HPD term sheets that in some cases hadn't been updated for years, and this was critically important because out-of-date term sheets required ad hoc approvals from OMB that added

considerable delays.

And so what is your role in approving HPD preservation in new construction projects, and is any of OMB's role duplicative of agency-level approvals at HPD?

I'm going to turn it over to Tara Burrard to speak to that.

Okay.

Thank you for the question.

So as it pertains to HPD projects, we are required to approve the certificate to proceed.

As part of that analysis, we're looking to make sure that all of the funding is eligible for capital, but we're also looking to ensure that the project is within the term sheets that we agreed upon.

Oftentimes when there is a perceived delay, it's because the project is coming over and then we're working with the agency to make a determination about how to bring the costs down.

Over the years, when we have found those projects over term sheet, that funding does not come back to the general fund or the capital budget, but more than likely stays with the project.

So what we're trying to do is increase additional affordability or raise the reserve level to make sure that that particular project is more viable in the long term.

So after updating the term sheet, would that not be included there?

Because my understanding is that it was updated so that we could sort of move these projects along faster.

And all I know is that from my own minuscule experience with our nonprofit capital project, the CPs can sometimes take like eight, ten years.

Not necessarily, and with that, the costs and everything else increase.

And so with housing being such an important part of the city's affordability issues, how do we make sure we can speed this up?

The team at OMB that works on the housing CPs is extremely dedicated.

And I think that, you know, for the most part, you're looking at housers in addition to budget people.

The process that we take on is concurrent.

So we're not adding additional time to the whole development process for HPD.

Okay, correct me if I'm wrong, because I was told that it's sequential, not concurrent.

So I guess that was my question, because that would seem to make the process even longer, but you're saying it happens at the same time.

It happens at the same time.

Okay.

All right.

I have more questions as well, but I'll save it for round two because I want to make sure that our members can ask questions.

So first we are going to...

Oh, where did you start?

Okay, we'll come back to Deputy Speaker when she comes back.

Majority Leader Abreu.