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Empty NYC-owned apartments could help solve housing crisis, policy group says
By
David Brand
Published May 10, 2023
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By
David Brand
Published May 10, 2023
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Hundreds of apartments in boarded-up buildings owned by New York City are sitting empty despite a deepening housing shortage, fueling calls to fund renovations.
Open New York, a group that advocates for development and renter protections, identified more than 200 rent-stabilized apartments in vacant buildings controlled or funded by the city as part of a crowdsourced survey on empty units. That’s likely a fraction of the total, said Andrew Fine, the group's policy director.
Fine, a former official at the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, called for “a public reckoning” to revamp the city-owned units that are sitting empty, pitching a proposal to expedite repair deadlines and a push to rent apartments sooner.
“This shows that there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit out there," Fine said. “When we talk about government being a meaningful player in solving the affordable housing crisis, we need to think about the things that are just staring at us already.”
'Unfinished business'
Open New York and other advocates hope the city can streamline the process of getting apartments like that back on the market, especially as shelters are stretched to capacity and tens of thousands of newly arriving immigrants are also in need of places to stay.
The group issued its call to identify empty apartments as the city is mired in a decadeslong housing shortage with tenants, landlords and policymakers locked in broader policy debate over long-term vacancies.
The organization is urging the city to restore more than $500 million in the housing budget that went unspent last year, fund the creation of a tool to track the state of rent-regulated buildings and restore 37 open positions at HPD that Mayor Eric Adams ordered eliminated in a recent cost-cutting measure.
The city’s most recent housing survey found that just 4.5% of apartments were empty and available to rent, with the vacancy rate lower than 1% for units priced below $1,500 — figures that represent a “housing emergency” under state law. Tens of thousands of rent-stabilized apartments are also being held off the market for a variety of reasons, though estimates of the actual number vary depending on the year and data source.
Those vacant rent-stabilized apartments have become a flashpoint in a broader debate over the affordable housing crisis, with tenant groups and some elected officials urging owners to rent out their empty apartments and landlords calling for changes to state laws that cap monthly rents and allowable increases. Landlords say the restrictions make leasing the empty units less profitable or, at times, simply infeasible.
But unlike with vacant apartments owned by private landlords, the city can take direct action at properties they own or heavily subsidize, Fine said. The needed renovations garner less attention than flashier plans to convert unused hotels and offices to apartments but would provide vital housing in buildings already configured for residential use.
“There is still a lot of unfinished business from past decades that get less attention and would serve tenants just as well if completed,” he said.
A pathway to ownership
The city owns 147 buildings outside the public housing system where renovations are underway or planned, according to HPD. About 40% of the 1,740 units in those buildings are vacant, the agency said. Those numbers do not account for the total number of city-owned residential buildings without a current renovation plan, or empty buildings turned over to nonprofits for redevelopment.
Many of the buildings are in dire condition and require “time-intensive” rehabs, while others are awaiting tenants through the city’s housing lottery, said HPD spokesperson Ilana Maier.
“HPD is working tirelessly to get these buildings, which are in very bad shape, back into safe, affordable and livable conditions,” Maier said. “The renovation needs in these buildings are often so substantial that it requires relocation of existing tenants out of concern for their safety and wellbeing.”
She cited multiple city programs that create a pathway to ownership for existing tenants or provide low-interest loans for owners to complete renovations.
In recent years, several housing experts have urged the city to increase funding and staff at HPD to clear bottlenecks and create or reopen apartments.
“I would see this as a huge opportunity and a case for not understaffing the government,” said Sam Stein, a housing policy analyst with the Community Service Society of New York.
Programs in progress
The city is beginning to introduce some new programs to fill some of the empty apartments it owns.
The city’s housing stock includes six dorm-style apartment buildings run as supportive housing for formerly homeless New Yorkers with mental illness and other special needs. An ongoing city pilot program intends to place around 80 people into those empty apartments, Gothamist reported last month.
The vacant buildings identified by Open New York range from a boarded-up, six-story property owned by the city on West 141st Street to an 80-unit complex on Pacific Street in Brooklyn, purchased by the nonprofit housing and shelter provider Acacia Networks in 2015.
Acacia spokesperson Gabriela Gonzalez said the building was a homeless shelter when they took it over with a plan to turn it into affordable housing, with financing from the city.
“Our plans are to preserve this community asset and redevelop it to provide much-needed affordable housing for low-income families and formerly homeless individuals, as soon as we receive appropriate approvals and funding,” Gonzalez said.
At a city-owned building at 220 Lenox Ave. the main entrance and first-floor windows are covered in painted plywood. A window air conditioning box and sheets hanging from curtain rods suggest some of the apartments recently housed tenants.
Property records show the city took over the property in 1976, making it one of thousands of buildings the city acquired after owners abandoned them or failed to make property tax payments. HPD said they relocated the building’s tenants due to dangerous conditions and plans to finance the needed renovations.
The building’s wood-covered windows are not out of place along the stretch of Lenox Avenue between West 125th and 116th streets, where at least four other buildings are sealed and empty, including an imposing six-story complex at 110 Lenox Ave., which the city took over in 1980 with plans to transfer it to a tenant association.
New York City stopped taking over abandoned and foreclosed properties in the mid-1990s, when then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani implemented the controversial tax lien sale to recover a portion of the debts and the Third Party Transfer program to turn over deteriorating properties to nonprofit groups without the city taking possession.
The organization Neighborhood Restore has fixed up around 500 properties under the initiative, before shifting ownership to other nonprofits or to tenant purchasers. But that process is expensive and time-consuming, with the buildings often in poor condition, said Salvatore D'Avola, Neighborhood Restore's executive director.
”All of the buildings that come to Neighborhood Restore have a plan for their renovation and are not sitting idle,” D’Avola said. “They come to us in physical and financial distress with most having a slew of housing code and DOB violations. “
Neighborhood Restore has owned two of the buildings on the Open New York vacancy list, including a complex located on Mott Avenue in Far Rockaway. D’Avola and HPD said the empty apartments there will soon hit the city’s affordable housing lottery.
By the numbers
All told, Open New York tallied 1,442 vacant apartments based on crowd-sourced submissions that they attempted to verify through visits, photos, court records and housing documents. About half were located in Manhattan.
The effort received praise from the End Warehousing Coalition, which conducted its own research and called out property owners that they say intentionally keep apartments off the market. They have urged the city and state to conduct a rigorous review of the city’s rent-stabilized apartments.
“We can count every tree in NYC, so we should know how much of our precious housing stock is being warehoused, especially in a housing crisis of historic proportions,” the group said in a statement.
The organization Community Housing Improvement Program, which represents owners of rent-stabilized properties, also said the study could spur a deeper understanding of the vacancy issue.
“Understanding why apartments are sitting empty in a city with such high demand for housing is important and will lead to better policy,” said Jay Martin, CHIP's executive director. “We should have an open and honest conversation about why the current housing policies are not encouraging apartments and buildings to be renovated and made available to New Yorkers.”
Tagged
new york city
housing
eric adams
David Brand
David is a reporter covering housing for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 908-310-3960.
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