Chair Sanchez round 2: stabilizing aging affordable housing and tools program

Okay, so this is the second bucket of question here is around the plan, what the plan says and does not say around stabilizing the aging affordable housing stock that low-income New Yorkers rely on.

So, you know, fully...

Let me pull up the right note.

Fully one-third of evictions in the previous year were at affordable housing projects or affordable housing buildings.

And with respect to what the plan says about stabilizing this portfolio or these properties, you indicate the tools program.

And so the first question here is with respect to the tools program, there are various components.

But one of the pieces of feedback that we have received time and again from the industry and from housers is that you know

the, I can't find the notes, so I'm just doing this from memory, is that the, oh my gosh, my brain is blanking.

The one-shot deal program has had, it has a 70% denial rate.

So how do you square that away with the expansion of the tools program and stopping evictions before they start?

I would just say, and I think both I and Director Reaver want to comment on this, I think tools is intended to work with existing property

subsidized, HPD subsidized property owners early in the process at getting access to tools that are already available to them, right?

Again, so not having to go through a new application for Article 11 or a new application for financing.

One of the things we're talking about as part of tools is how to get upstream in the process so that we're not relying so heavily on one shots, right?

And so I want to be frank that we have not fully figured out exactly what to do or why we are seeing so much fragility in terms of rent collection.

But what we have heard pretty consistently is that better asset management and better services, wraparound services at the building level has improved rent collection a lot.

So one of the things we're exploring with tools is if we can help clear back rent through a grant or a loan from HPD to the property owner

in order to then free up capital, which would otherwise go to legal expenses, to bring in better management, better wraparound services, we think that will have a stabilizing effect.

So we've included in the tools outline a pilot to sort of test certain versions of that to see if it does actually make a difference in terms of both stabilizing the cash flow and help more residents get current and stay current on their rent.

I would just add that the city's public engagement unit runs a tenant support helpline that has been tremendously helpful at actually workshopping one-shot deal applications with renters so that their one-shot deal applications are successful.

They fielded more than 21,000 calls last year, and they continue to be a really critical resource that the mayor's office for tech tenants works closely with to ensure that people are getting access to tools to help pay their background if that's what is needed.

And Director Weaver, what are the most common reasons for these rejections?

I would have to get back to you on that, but the applications are complicated, they are long, and we are looking for ways to really support people in making sure that they're filling out the application to the best of their ability so that their application is successful.

Thank you.

And tools writ large, have you already launched the program?

How much funding has been allocated to each aspect of tools?

And how many buildings do you expect to work with in the first year?

Yes.

So we have launched.

In the first stage, we spent a lot of time training our asset and property management staff on the new protocols around requests for reserves.

Expanded tax abatements under 420C.

So that was phase one.

Phase two was a series of roundtables that we held with groups like NYSAFA and A&HD and the housing conference to make sure folks know about the program and also to take feedback.

We didn't want to sort of roll it out without getting some input from our partners on what they thought would be most

helpful.

Now we're at the stage where we've onboarded the three technical assistance providers, Enterprise LISC and the Housing Partnership, and we've sort of just sort of figured out amongst ourselves who will be serving which organizations that are interested in that additional technical assistance.

And lastly, we're now engaged with about half a dozen individual developers on their actual portfolios who are working to take advantage of one or more of the different options under tools.

Thank you.