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Thousands of supportive apartments sit empty in NYC as homeless die on the streets
By
David Brand
Published Feb 5, 2026
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Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
By
David Brand
Published Feb 5, 2026
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Thousands of permanent apartments reserved for formerly homeless New Yorkers are sitting empty, despite a mounting death toll on the city’s streets and a near-record-high shelter population, new city data shows.
A legally required monthly report released by the city’s Department of Social Services reveals nearly 3,200 of the city’s roughly 40,000 supportive housing units were vacant, with no immediate plans by the agency or providers to fill them with a tenant. The report is current as of just over two months ago and shows that most of the empty apartments are overseen by the state.
Elected officials and advocates for homeless New Yorkers have long assailed the chronic vacancy problem in supportive housing amid a growing homelessness crisis. The apartments are typically reserved for people leaving shelters who have a mental illness or other special needs.
“These vacant supportive housing units could make an enormous dent in addressing this crisis,” said Councilmember Lincoln Restler, a Brooklyn Democrat who sponsored legislation requiring regular reporting on the vacancies. “There’s no excuse for us to have such high vacancy rates when there are so many people who are desperately in need of this housing and these services.”
Roughly 87,000 people spent Monday night in a shelter run by the Department of Homeless Services, according to the city’s most recent daily census. A few thousand more stay on the street or in public spaces.
In an interview on Tuesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani told Gothamist he would prioritize filling the empty supportive apartments.
“ That will be a focus for us throughout this cold period, but frankly, beyond that, as it's a long-standing city issue that needs to be resolved,” he said.
The deep freeze consuming the five boroughs has renewed focus on the need to move homeless New Yorkers into the apartments. At least 17 New Yorkers, some of them homeless, have died outdoors since lingering frigid temperatures first hit the five boroughs on Jan. 23.
“As homeless people face life-threatening conditions during this extreme weather, there are thousands of vacant supportive housing units that could be offered to people who need them and could save lives,” said Craig Hughes, a social worker with the organization Legal Services NYC’s Tenants Rights Coalition.
Hughes urged Mamdani to streamline the city’s supportive housing application process, rehab “offline” units and stop providers from denying applicants with higher levels of need.
About two-thirds of the empty apartments are funded by the state’s Office of Mental Health, the report shows.
Office of Mental Health spokesperson Justin Mason said the report does not paint a complete picture of supportive housing vacancies in the city.
“While a helpful guide, the data in this report only represents a snapshot in time and doesn’t accurately reflect our citywide vacancies or our collective efforts to place individuals living with mental illness into appropriate housing that suits their needs," Mason said
Office of Mental Health Commissioner Ann Marie Sullivan also addressed the problem during a budget hearing before state lawmakers Wednesday morning. She said the agency plans to spend an additional $65 million to “ensure that providers have sufficient resources to maintain housing capacity” and address the vacancy shortage.
She also said the state is considering a new “housing first” approach that allows people to move directly from the streets into permanent supportive housing without a lengthy stay in a homeless shelter or with conditions, like substance use treatment. The city piloted a similar program in 2023.
“Housing first works,” Sullivan said. “ We might be increasing some of those ‘housing first’ [units] for other populations that need that immediate access to housing.”
She also said the city data may not paint a complete picture of the vacancy issue. Some of the apartments listed as empty actually refer to another problem where nonprofit providers receive state funding to rent units for tenants in privately owned buildings, but can’t find apartments they can afford.
Sullivan said the budget includes $38 million in additional funding for these so-called “scattered site” programs, where social service staff visit tenants at their apartments located throughout the community to offer assistance.
The model has come under scrutiny due to apartments included in the program that are plagued by dangerous conditions and owned by some of the city’s most notorious landlords, as Gothamist and City Limits previously reported. Providers have blamed the low funding amounts for forcing them to lease shoddy housing.
Pascale Leone, executive director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York, said her lobbying group is pushing to fund more single units to appeal to people leaving shelters who do not want to live with roommates.
“After the trauma of homelessness and interaction with systems that have failed them, a lot of folks do not want to live with a stranger,” Leone said.
She said her organization has shared suggestions with the Mamdani administration for how to streamline the process for filling empty apartments.
“We can not accept 3,000 supportive housing vacancies,” she said. “We must leave no stone unturned to make sure people get housed.”
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Zohran Mamdani
housing
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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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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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