CM Restler questions OMB on vacant NYCHA and supportive housing units

Thank you, Chair Lee, and I'm very happy to not be competing with Councilmember Murano.

I wanted to focus on the Progressive Caucus's campaign for rentals within reach.

As you know well, Director, we saw a disgraceful 12-fold increase in vacant NYCHA units under Eric Adams'administration, from just 486 when he came into office at the end of the de Blasio administration to well over 6,000

when Mayor Mamdani came in four years later.

Similarly, we've seen the number of vacant supportive housing units that are in the city's control, DOHMH and HRA units, increase dramatically over these recent years.

There are 1,157 vacant HRA and DOHMH-funded supportive housing units today, as of a report from a month ago.

So combined, we're looking at close to 7,200-plus vacant units that the city funds, that are in our control, that are for the poorest New Yorkers who need housing the most.

We want the city council to champion putting more resources.

in to activate these units, what do you think is the best way for us to fill, to renovate and get activated these NYCHA units and these supportive housing units?

Is it if we give additional funding to NYCHA to hire additional staff to fix up the units, is that the best approach?

De Blasio had a shelter repair squad a decade ago that fixed up shelters that were in substandard conditions.

Should we be bringing resources together from other agencies to fix up NYCHA apartments?

How can we break through and not ensure that it's just the same number of vacant units a year from now?

So thank you for your leadership on this issue.

I mean, I know that you also have focused on this for many, many years as well.

We know it's a priority of the caucus, and we know that from our perspective, what we added in the executive budget, we think it makes some meaningful progress.

We know there's more to do.

We want to be as ambitious as we can be.

The block-by-block housing plan outlines how ambitious we want to be in there.

A vacant unit doesn't serve anyone.

We need to be able to, and we invested in ways that we can bring more apartments on and repair and maintenance in terms of mold and leaks.

We have the OCC, you know, call center as well.

But the vacant unit piece, again, we talked about the numbers a little bit earlier.

I know that, again, it will make meaningful progress.

And when you look at sort of the historic and recent history, it's probably the most combination between capital and expense.

Yeah.

I know that you're talking about more like strike forces or squads that can come in and do it.

What's the kind of blitz that we can do that can make a difference this year?

Because when we hear from NYCHA, when we've talked to them, they've said with the additional funding that the city's putting in, which we're grateful for, all we're going to do is stop the bleeding, and it's going to be the same number of vacant units a year from now.

It won't improve because it's getting worse every year.

And that just, being at status quo, having 6,000 vacant NYCHA apartments a year from now isn't a win.

So we want to hear from OMB, what's the investment that we can make that will make a difference?

If the council is willing to lead on this, and I can't speak for the speaker, but if that were to happen.

What's the investment in vacant NYCHA apartments and what's the investment in vacant supportive housing that you believe and your team believes would make the greatest difference so that we could house potentially 20,000 New Yorkers who are desperately in need of affordable housing this year if we renovated these units?

Yeah, I think it's a conversation we'll have over the next few weeks, and we can tie sort of the investment into working with NYCHA to understand for every dollar spent, what is it by us in terms of units brought online?

We have not had the easiest time scheduling some of these follow-up meetings, so we would love to, it's good to hear that you want to continue those conversations.

Hopefully that will make it a little easier to get things on the books.

Thank you.

I was going to make a joke, but I won't.

Okay, Pierian Sanchez and then Mercedes.