Release # 048-99

Contact: Colleen Roche/Curt Ritter 212-788-2958

In a preview of the Mayor's Management Report (preliminary for Fiscal Year 1999), Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani today discussed some of the successful initiatives administered by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).

"HPD has made tremendous strides improving City housing over the past five years," said Mayor Giuliani. "Since 1994 HPD has reduced the number of in rem housing units by 41 percent and instituted a number of programs that have helped revitalize distressed neighborhoods and create affordable housing for New Yorkers. I commend Commissioner Roberts on his work and look forward to the continued success at HPD."

Richard T. Roberts, Commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said, "Under the leadership of Mayor Giuliani, New York City housing policy has made a dramatic change in the landscape. The most recent Mayor's Management Report indicates clearly the City's success in moving out the business of owning and managing properties and promoting private investment in neighborhood redevelopment."

Among the highlights the Mayor reported were:

• IN REM BUILDINGS: As part of the City's Building Blocks! Initiative, HPD returns City-owned property to private ownership to local entrepreneurs, community based housing organizations or tenants to create low-income cooperatives. From FY 1994 to October 1998, the number of in rem housing units was reduced from 30,358 to 17,941 -- a reduction of 41% -- the lowest level since 1978 when HPD first took control of in rem housing. Units that have passed into private ownership during this period now provide over $6 million annually to the City in tax revenue.
• SAFE AT HOME: Part of the Mayor's comprehensive anti-drug strategy, this program combines $88 million in concentrated housing development and preservation activity with intensified law enforcement efforts in targeted neighborhoods. Targeted areas include: designated blocks surrounding the Boston Road corridor in the 42nd Precinct in the South Bronx and Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue intersection in the 79th Precinct in Brooklyn.
• ANCHOR/PARTNERSHIP PLAZA: This program, a joint initiative with the New York City Partnership, combines $170 million in public and private investment to revitalize nine commercial corridors in distressed areas where substantial housing investment has occurred. It is designed to revitalize local commercial development in low and moderate-income areas that have received substantial public and private housing investment and need additional retail services.

The Mayor is scheduled to deliver his preliminary Mayor's Management Report on Wednesday, February 10, where he will further outline the City's accomplishments this past year in such areas as: crime reduction, tax reduction, job creation and school construction among others.