This week on Housing New York, we tell you the latest on what's happening in Albany for the legislative session. Plus, there is more data showing that voucher holders are struggling to find housing. And the worst landlords list is out; we're going to put it into context.  

Let's start Housing New York.  

[THEME]
“We need 800,000 units to meet the demand today. What we have right now in the United States and what we have right now in New York City is almost a crisis of absurdity. We have thousands of people with rent vouchers and no place to use them; housing needs to be addressed from literally every angle. And we all must move from the position of No and say Yes. Housing will finally allow us to turn three generations of No into a city of Yes.”  

[INTRO]

Welcome to Housing in New York, the weekly podcast that discusses all the housing news from the previous week. I'm your host, Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association.  

We're taping this on Monday, January 27th. This is the time when things really start to pick up in both city and state government. The budget proposals are out and negotiations will start soon. Lobbying picks up; and if you want to get things done, like increasing housing supply, you really have to be active right now. 

I can tell you that NYAA is active and we are going to use this podcast to give regular updates when we can. 

Let's get to the news. 

[01:29] [Albany update]

We kick off the podcast with the latest news from Albany, where the governor has released a $252 billion spending plan – or a quarter of a trillion dollars. 

The budget didn't include many surprises when it came to housing. 

It included an additional $1 billion for New York City as part of the City of Yes proposal that was championed by the mayor and passed by the City Council. This fits with the governor's theme in recent years of rewarding pro-housing communities with extra state funding. Her budget also set aside another $760 million in discretionary funding to support infrastructure concerns for communities that pass pro-housing policies.  

One thing missing from the proposal is the type of regulatory reform that would lower the cost of operating and building housing, which would of course increase supply and make the state more affordable.

The budget was not surprising after the disappointing State of the State Address. It's clear that the governor is not prioritizing the issue, despite the growing concern among voters about the lack of quality affordable housing. 

If the governor isn't going to prioritize housing as an issue, it's unlikely that the Legislature will focus on it – unless we make them. And when I say We, I mean all New Yorkers who care about the lack of housing and feel like they are getting priced out of the state. Collective action and anger is the only way lawmakers will be moved to address the issue. 

[02:47] [Vouchers]

We're going to talk about vouchers now.

It's no secret that we here at NYAA are fans of vouchers – they are the most stable way to keep people in their homes without defunding buildings. But new data suggests that voucher holders are struggling to use them.

Here's what's happening.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams pledged last year to issue 1,000 vouchers a month after the Section 8 wait list reopened.

But instead of 12,000 new vouchers hitting the market, NYCHA, which administers the vouchers, has only issued 1,513 of them to the 200,000 households on the waitlist.

Furthermore, only 134 of those voucher holders have actually been able to use them to find a place to live. 

There are a couple of explanations.

The first is a supply issue. When the vacancy rate is so low, people cannot find places to live. This is further exacerbated by apartments that are taken off the market because the rents are too low to cover renovations and operating costs.

The second issue is the voucher process itself. Navigating the voucher bureaucracy is incredibly difficult for both the renter and the housing provider, and long delays often mean apartments become unavailable.

Lawmakers can fix this. First, by pushing an abundance agenda, as mentioned by The Real Deal last week, and ensuring there are plenty of housing options available. But city and state officials also need to streamline the voucher process. And we believe privately owned, rent-stabilized housing should be able to accept the full voucher amount for apartments – the same way nonprofit housing providers are allowed to do it. 

All these things would help voucher holders find permanent housing more quickly.  

[04:21] [Property Taxes]

Okay, we're going to talk about property taxes.

We've explained in great detail how unfair the system is, and there has been basically nothing done by elected officials for almost 40 years now.

That prompted a lawsuit focused on changing it. It was brought by a coalition called Tax Equity Now New York, or TENNY for short. Last year, they won in the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, which said their trial against New York City's implementation of property taxes can continue.

Specifically, the case looks at how the city's Department of Finance assesses the value of buildings.

For example, an average 20-unit rent-stabilized building is selling for more than $2 million right now. Meanwhile, some single family homes in the same neighborhood are also selling for around $2 million. The taxes on the rent-stabilized buildings are roughly seven times higher.

That's why this lawsuit is happening, and that's why the courts have said the case should proceed. 

The latest news in the process is that TENNY filed a motion for summary judgment to force the city to change how some property values are calculated. The reason for the legal move is because the city is required by law to notify property owners if their taxes increase by February 20th. 

We support TENNY and their efforts. This move is necessary, but the reality is that we need all parties involved to come together to fix our unfair property tax system.

This should also be a topic that is debated among candidates for mayor. Mayor Adams, Mayor de Blasio, and even Mayor Bloomberg, all talked about fixing property taxes and have done virtually nothing on the issue. The current mayor should outline his plan to finally address this and his challengers should as well. 

[05:59] [Squatters & Housing Court]

Now we have a story about Housing Court and squatters.

This has been a point of frustration for both property owners and some tenants who are forced to live in the same building as squatters – who can be disruptive and sometimes even violent.

In Queens, a homeowner had their house taken from them by a squatter. When the homeowner tried to take back control of the house, she was arrested. After years of legal fights, she got the home back. But this past week, the squatter was also brought to justice for several accounts of fraud and other crimes related to the subleasing of the house to various unsuspecting renters. 

The individual was sentenced to two years in prison.  

We highlight this case because we think it's important for everyone to know what's happening in Housing Court. 

Owners of apartment buildings often get complaints from tenants that they are not doing enough to evict renters who are disruptive or even violent. But it's not the owner's fault. The court system isn't working. 

When the court doesn't work, nobody gets justice or due process. Owners trying to collect rent from non-paying tenants can see cases take more than a year. Renters who want to adjudicate maintenance concerns are also failed by this process. 

Queens DA Melinda Katz said that she hopes this criminal prosecution will be a deterrent to squatters. We hope so as well, but there is still much more we need to do to improve our court system.  

[07:15] [Rezoning Midtown]

We love abundant housing on this podcast. So we want to tell you about steps being taken to upzone Midtown South in Manhattan.

City Planning approved the rezoning, which would allow for office-to-residential conversions and skyscraper housing development in the forty-two blocks between 23rd and 40th Streets and 5th and 8th Avenues. Now it will go on to the ULURP process, which is New York City's rezoning process. 

The rezoning is modeled after a similar plan that was put into place in the Financial District following the 9/11 attacks. That led to nearly 10,000 apartments being built, and the city hopes this rezoning will create roughly the same amount of homes.  

This all sounds great, but rezoning is just part of the supply conversation. 

Many buildings in the Financial District that took advantage of the previous rezoning have run into financial troubles after the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal told them they could administer rent stabilization in a certain way, and then – years later – the Court of Appeals said those buildings did it wrong. 
This only fuels distrust in government, and will give the folks who will potentially build this housing reason for pause.  

Another problem that rezoning doesn't address is the high cost of building; part of that is from over-regulation in the city. Another huge hindrance to building may be the expansion of tariffs with U.S. trade partners like Canada. 

Rezoning is great. We're happy about it. But it's time we start having real conversations about the many other hurdles to abundant housing.  

[08:39] [Worst Landlords List]

We're going to end the podcast by talking about the Worst Landlords List that was published last week. 

For those who are not familiar, the Public Advocate's Office has published this list for nearly a decade. It predates current Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. 

The list basically looks at buildings with high violation counts and the owner of the building is labeled a bad landlord.  

We have two main things to say about this list. 

First, it is important for the city to hold property owners accountable. Most property owners understand this, and they want a system where they are not at a financial disadvantage for doing the right thing – which is maintaining housing – [while] owners who are not maintaining housing can benefit. 

The second thing we have to say about this list is it's not helpful in accomplishing what we just said. It has a flawed methodology. It doesn't put violation counts into any real context. It's just a list that was devised for the political purpose of shaming property owners because there is a belief that the office holder will get some kind of political bump from doing it.

It is cynical and unauthentic politics. It is the type of thing that we believe turns voters off. And as we said in a statement to the news media, all of the bad property owners in New York City would be run out of town if the city simply increased the supply of housing. 

That's where the public advocate should be focusing his time and energy. 

[OUTRO]

We have some exciting news to tell you about. We are in the process of building out a podcast studio, and in the coming weeks, we'll be starting to have conversations with interesting guests about housing, politics, and how we can make the city more livable.

If you have ideas for who we should invite onto the pod, our email is podcast@housingny.org.

As always, you can follow us on social media channels @housingny.

The Housing New York podcast is a proud product of the New York Apartment Association. Please keep sending us feedback on our website or in the comments below. 

You've been listening to Housing New York with Kenny Burgos, and I'll see you all next week.

And remember, good housing policy starts with good conversation.