Chair Hanif on DRIE enrollment decline and borough disparities
Hanif details DRIE enrollment falling from 12,215 households in 2019 to 11,012 in 2024, notes 42% enrollment among eligible households down from 56%, and highlights the Bronx as the only borough with declining DRIE enrollment, with Morrisania and East Tremont having under 25% enrollment.
Yet the program is not reaching the people it was built for.
DRE enrollment peaked at 12,215 households in 2019.
By 2024, it was 11,012, a decline of nearly 10%, while the cost of housing in New York City went in exactly the opposite direction.
Across both SCRI and DRE, the Department of Finance estimates that roughly 158,000 households were eligible in 2023.
And that roughly 42% of them were enrolled, down from 56% four years earlier.
The Bronx is the only borough where DRE enrollment fell, and the Bronx neighborhoods report some of the lowest rent-freeze program utilization rates in our city.
In Morissania and East Tremont, fewer than a quarter of eligible households are enrolled in either SCRI or DRE.
That is not a coincidence.
It shows us where outreach is not working.