2 days ago
Cuomo vows ‘top to bottom review' of key NYC housing agency, stirring mixed responses
Andrew Cuomo is pledging he would as mayor 'cut out the bureaucracy' from New York City's Department of Housing Presevation and Development, arguing it's riddled with 'red tape' — a proposal welcomed by real estate industry players but that is raising alarm bells among tenant advocates.
The issue emerged in Wednesday night's first Democratic mayoral primary debate, when Cuomo said he would 'blow up' the department in order to address the city's housing crisis.
The agency — which is tasked with helping finance affordable housing construction, enforce tenant protections and administer certain rental assistance programs — has become an 'obstacle' to the mission of building more apartments across the city, Cuomo added.
Asked Thursday to elaborate on what Cuomo meanty, his spokesman Rich Azzopardi said the ex-governor 'believes HPD is too slow and too inefficient in fulfilling its core functions.'
'If elected mayor, among his first duties would be to order a top to bottom review of the agency and then implement a plan to cut out the bureaucracy, cut the red tape and make it functional in a reasonable manner,' Azzopardi told the Daily News.
Azzopardi said the ex-governor's critical view of HPD applies to all its sectors — affordable housing financing, tenant protection enforcement and rental assistance administration.
Cuomo's housing plan released last month didn't include the proposal to overhaul HPD, which has an annual budget of more than $1.5 billion. The plan includes the production of 500,000 new housing units in the city over 10 years, but did not spell out how many of those apartments would be affordable.
The plan also said Cuomo would as mayor oppose most up-zoning efforts in outer-borough neighborhoods, a stance at odds with HPD's focus under Mayor Adams to facilitate more affordable housing construction in pockets of the city that have historically produced little of it.
Housing has emerged as a key issue in this year's mayoral race as the city reels from skyrocketing rents and a dearth of vacant apartments, and there's widespread agreement more units must be built.
However, there are disagreements over what sort of affordability requirements should be placed on developers, with moderate politicians like Cuomo championing looser restrictions while more left-leaning stakeholders want most new apartments reserved for low-income New Yorkers.
Cuomo, who's polling as the favorite to win the June 24 Democratic mayoral primary, floated the push for restructuring HPD as his mayoral run has taken in millions of dollars in donations from real estate industry executives and landlord lobby groups, who often air concerns about the need to reform the agency.
As first reported by Politico Thursday, Housing for All, a super PAC funded by one of the city's largest landlord lobbies, is plunking down $2.5 million on airing ads boosting Cuomo's run. The lobby group, the New York Apartment Association, which mostly represents landlords of rent-stabilized buildings, vehemently opposes efforts to freeze rent for the city's stabilized tenants, a proposal several of Cuomo's mayoral race opponents, including runner-up candidate Zohran Mamdani, have embraced.
Kenny Burgos, the New York Apartment Association's CEO, lauded Cuomo for promising to 'blow up' the HPD, saying the agency is 'choking the market' from producing more housing.
'It is bringing on layers upon layers of violations to owners, where there are scenarios where owners can't even clear the violations because of HPD mismanagement,' Burgos said. 'So, you know, any candidate talking about completely reforming the agency that has really huge overarching powers on regulated housing, I'd say is a good approach.'
But Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler, a progressive Democrat who used to be a senior adviser to ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio, including on housing and tenant issues, said Cuomo's proposal is 'dangerous' and voiced concern his comments signal he's open to the real estate industry's push to roll back tenant protections and rent regulations.
'Cuomo is going to do the bidding of wealthy real estate interests who had paid for his campaign, not meet the needs of the people of New York City,' Restler said.
Mamdani, who's consistently polling in second place in the mayor's race, told The News: 'HPD doesn't need to be 'blown up' — it needs to be fully staffed so it can protect tenants and get affordable housing built.'
A city government official involved in the Adams administration's affordable housing efforts argued HPD has undergone various reforms in recent years to streamline the agency's operations. In the last fiscal year, HPD financed 14,706 newly-constructed affordable homes.
'HPD is already blowing up the status quo, making it easier to build new apartments and easier to get into affordable housing,' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Cea Weaver, director of the left-leaning Housing Justice for All group, acknowledged there are many roadblocks to affordable housing production, but also argued HPD isn't one of them.
'A top to bottom review, that sounds like a hell of a lot bureaucracy,' she said. 'What needs to happen is to actually just let HPD operate.'
