This week, the New York Housing Conference along with 87 partners sent a letter to Mayor Eric Adams calling for HPD to be exempt from the mayor’s 3 percent budget cuts.
Mayor Adams has directed city agencies, including the Department of Housing Preservation, to make 3 percent cuts to their budget in 2022, 2023 and future years. This decision is short-sighted as it pertains to housing and will ultimately exacerbate a housing emergency that is impacting millions of New Yorkers.
Several agencies are exempt from the cut, including the Department of Corrections, Health + Hospitals, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, due to the “unique challenges” facing those agencies according to the budget directive. New York’s long-standing housing crisis fits the same bill.
HPD is already short-staffed; total agency staffing is down 5 percent from before the pandemic, while the office of development, which manages affordable housing production, is down 13 percent. Reducing staff and resources at HPD will only lengthen approval time, delay projects, and decrease housing production, preventing your constituents from accessing the affordable and supportive housing that they desperately need.
You can see the letter here and see our list of partners here.