The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) today announced the third season of its “Taking it to the Streets” campaign, providing communities across the City with information on HPD’s housing programs and services. The campaign had a successful second season last year, reaching out to over 8,400 people in a total of 53 stops across the five boroughs.  HPD is the nation's largest municipal housing agency and a major strategy of the agency is to encourage preservation of affordable housing through education, outreach, loan programs, and enforcement of housing quality standards. These efforts are part of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing over ten years. The “Taking it to the Streets” campaign is led by the agency’s Office of Community Partnerships.

“Housing is a top concern of many New Yorkers and HPD is committed to reaching out to neighborhoods in all five boroughs with information about the services and resources we have available.” said Housing Commissioner Shaun Donovan. “With the largest municipal affordable housing effort in the nation’s history and a vast array of services for owners, home buyers and tenants I encourage all New Yorkers to look for HPD’s ‘Taking it to the Streets’ campaign in their neighborhoods this summer.”

During “Taking it to the Streets”, HPD’s Office of Community Partnerships staff will share information on issues and initiatives such as fair housing laws, tenant rights, and rental and homeownership opportunities. HPD’s Homebuyer Unit staff will also be on site to raise awareness about HPD’s Down Payment Assistance Program which provides qualified homebuyers with up to 6% of a home's purchase price toward the down payment or closing costs on a 1-4 family home, a condominium, or a cooperative in one of the five boroughs of New York City. HPD staff will also provide information and answer questions on a variety of topics including home health safety issues such as lead and mold abatement, energy efficiency, landlord-tenants relations, how to search for affordable housing and fair housing issues. 

“Taking it to the Streets” visits city neighborhoods and distributes information in heavily trafficked areas for much of the day. The wide array of campaign stops are selected in partnership with local community district managers and the community liaison office of each neighborhood’s police precinct. Areas around main transportation intersections and those with a high density of immigrant households are being targeted in the campaign.  The campaign will dedicate one month exclusively to different city boroughs, making two stops a week in each of the selected neighborhoods.  In May the campaign will make stops in Manhattan; in June, Brooklyn; in July, Queens; in August, the Bronx and in September, Staten Island.

“Taking it to the Streets” is especially aimed at Limited English Proficiency Audiences as part of HPD’s language access strategy to reach out to the newest New York households (recently arrived immigrant families), whose first language is not English. Materials and presentations will be offered in languages appropriate to the area being served.  HPD is working with its community partners to identify the best methods to reach out to the highest number of residents in the selected City areas.  HPD anticipates around 250 residents taking advantage of the campaign in each stop, reaching nearly 10,000 New Yorkers in total.

“Taking it to the Streets” will also provide voter registration information. “The NYC Voter Assistance Commission is proud to participate in HPD’s ‘Taking it to the Streets’ campaign said Onida Coward Mayers, Executive Director of the Voter Assistance Commission, “Engaging New Yorkers civically and encouraging their active participation in our democratic process is critical to the vitality of our city.  Nonpartisan community voter drives are an excellent method in reaching out to register as many eligible New Yorkers as possible.”

Click here for the “Taking it to the Streets” schedule

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development's mission is to promote quality housing and viable neighborhoods for New Yorkers. The department is the nation’s largest municipal housing development agency and is implementing Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing over ten years. The New Housing Marketplace Plan is the largest municipal affordable housing effort in the nation’s history. As part of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC  HPD is working to create homes for almost a million more New Yorkers by 2030 while making housing more affordable and sustainable.  HPD also encourages the preservation of affordable housing through education, outreach, loan programs and enforcement of housing quality standards.

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