February 9, 2026 — Testimony of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development to the New York C

Good morning Chair Sanchez and members of the New York City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings. My name is Michael Sandler, the Associate Commissioner for the Office of Neighborhood Strategies at HPD, and I am joined by my colleagues, Lucy Joffe, Deputy Commissioner of Policy and Strategy, Annmarie Santiago, Deputy Commissioner of Enforcement and Neighborhood Strategies, Emily Osgood, Associate Commissioner of Housing Opportunity and Placement Services, and Stephen Erdman, Assistant Commissioner of Homeownership Opportunities and Preservation. We appreciate the opportunity to testify today and look forward to a productive partnership with the Speaker, Chair, and all of the partners that make affordable housing possible in New York City.

Today, I am eager to discuss a few of the critical issues and opportunities facing our City. While we might have some difference in opinion on the details, I know this Council and HPD share a deep commitment to confronting the City’s housing crisis. Our testimony will focus primarily on shared housing, but we’re also looking forward to discussing the issues tackled in the other bills being heard today.

Intro 66 - Shared Housing:

New Yorkers deserve choices, and our limited housing supply doesn’t change that basic fact. That shortage means we must aggressively work to expand housing choice for all New Yorkers. We must both innovate and learn from the past. Reintroducing shared housing is an incredible opportunity to do just that.

Shared housing, privately leased bedrooms with shared kitchens, bathrooms, and living spaces, has a long history in New York City. For decades, models like boarding houses and SROs provided affordable options for immigrants, young workers, and people navigating life transitions. Mid-20th-century policies intended to improve housing quality ultimately eliminated most of this housing. This change, meant to help New Yorkers, unintentionally contributed to today’s shortage of low-cost options for single adults.

Between 2013 and 2023, the number of small households grew by more than 11 percent, while the supply of small units grew by only 7.5 percent. Many single New Yorkers rely on roommates, often in illegally converted apartments that compromise safety and tenant protections.

Now, we’re seeing a striking growth of informal and commercialized co-living options. There’s a clear and strong demand for shared housing at a range of price points.

Intro 66 responds directly to today’s reality. This legislation builds on nearly a decade of research, testing, and interagency collaboration. HPD’s Shared Housing Roadmap, released in November of last year, draws on lessons from historic models, the ShareNYC pilot, and extensive engagement with tenants, operators, advocates, and other municipalities. The passage of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity removed key zoning barriers; Intro 66 now advances the remaining code changes needed to allow shared housing as-of-right and to regulate it appropriately.

Shared housing creates practical opportunities in today’s market. It can lower costs in office-to-residential conversions, expand housing options in amenity rich areas, and provide safer, regulated alternatives to illegal room rentals. Existing programs across the city already demonstrate how shared housing can support students, young adults, new parents, and newcomers without being transitional or tied to the shelter system.

We want to be clear: shared housing is not for everyone. Rather, it is one additional tool to address a severe shortage of low-cost housing for single New Yorkers.

At a time of historically low vacancy rates, addressing the housing crisis requires a multi-pronged approach. Shared housing is one part of that strategy. After the original introduction of this bill in November 2025, we heard feedback from stakeholders that made it clear that ratios of kitchens and bathrooms and safety standards are critical to get right; we look forward to hearing more detailed feedback today and working with the Council to strengthen this legislation. We are grateful for the deep collaboration with former Council Member Bottcher, and look forward to our continued collaboration with Council Member Maloney and the Council to advance this legislation.

Intro 271 - Vacates: 

Switching gears — we’d like to discuss emergency vacates. Needing to vacate your home because of an emergency is a nightmare few of us can imagine, but it is the reality for the New Yorkers who’ve been displaced from their homes due to fires or who have had to vacate due to unsafe building conditions. Intro 271 addresses HPD services and enforcement following a city-issued vacate order. As you know, the American Red Cross (ARC) currently responds to vacate orders and fires in partnership with HPD and provides multiple on-site services to families in need, including informing displaced tenants of available assistance, providing short-term emergency housing, and making referrals to HPD for temporary housing placements.  

Following displacement events such as fires or hazardous conditions, we recognize the importance of clear, direct, and coordinated communication so tenants understand how the City is responding and what resources are available. We appreciate the Council’s leadership last session to pass Local Law 109 of 2025, which strengthened interagency coordination in response to vacated properties and supported our efforts to assist displaced residents. The administration is actively working on implementing this bill to designate the Mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery Operations to provide centralized support for residents displaced by fires, natural disasters, or other residential emergencies and facilitate communication between impacted tenants, property owners and relevant city agencies. We look forward to continuing this work in partnership with the Council.

In addition to directly supporting displaced residents, HPD also works through its Code Enforcement team to monitor and support the timely repair of vacated homes to facilitate tenants’ return home after many fire vacates. HPD’s current enforcement and monitoring approach prioritizes responsiveness and proportionality, using a range of tools and working collaboratively with owners to achieve timely compliance and durable outcomes for residents. We have concerns about the bill’s requirement that HPD initiate 7A proceedings to appoint an administrator to manage a property if the owner does not correct conditions and do not believe 7A is necessary to gain compliance. The 7A Program is an important tool for addressing extremely distressed properties and persistent owner noncompliance after other enforcement efforts have failed, and we support continuing to use the 7A program for that purpose.

We look forward to continuing to work with the Council to address these concerns while advancing our shared goal of supporting displaced tenants and improving outcomes for residents of vacated buildings.

Intros 418 and 427 – Housing Connect: 

Now, I am eager to dive into an extremely important part of HPD’s work — connecting New Yorkers to affordable homes. Intro 418, which would require HPD to create an in-person Housing Connect assistance program in coordination with other agencies, would unintentionally make it harder to house New Yorkers. We recognize the intent behind this bill and ensuring New Yorkers can get the help they need navigating the affordable housing process is something we as an Agency deeply believe in. To highlight this priority, we have a number of existing relationships with community organizations for our Housing Ambassador program and are supportive of exploring how we can enhance support for these vital organizations. Additionally, we recently launched a new Neighborhood-based initiative, in partnership with public libraries, to provide the kind of in-person support we believe the Council is seeking. From one-on-one digital guidance to multilingual application assistance and help with completed paper applications, these programs are connecting New Yorkers to housing opportunities every day. We’d welcome the opportunity to discuss ways we can work with the Council on these efforts. 

Intro 427, which addresses how affordable housing units that become vacant—also known as “second generation units” — are re-rented through the Housing Connect portal, touches on a process we are actively reviewing to ensure that we are delivering the best housing opportunities for New Yorkers. With input from a robust variety of stakeholders, we are actively rethinking how best to connect New Yorkers with these important housing opportunities. We recently rolled out a new temporary update, the third update announced over the last few years, to improve the process. Re-rentals will continue to be required to be posted publicly and accessibly but it will not be necessary to send through HPD’s Housing Connect system, though many may continue to do so voluntarily. This added flexibility is one example of ways we’re testing strategies to help fill units faster and reduce unnecessary paperwork.  We are currently incorporating feedback into our review, using insights from this pilot, housing advocates, New Yorkers, building owner and marketing agents, and recommendations from the Council to guide that work.  We are grateful for the deep partnership and collaboration with the Council and stakeholders on this topic to date and are hopeful that today’s discussion continues to inform and advance our work.

Intro 421 – Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)

Finally, I’d like to transition to talking about ADUs. Intro 421 is a cleanup bill that clarifies the city’s housing maintenance code to explicitly allow new accessory dwelling units (ADUs), including in cellars of one- and two-family homes. Local Laws 126 and 127 of 2024 enabled the legalization of lawful existing basement and cellar residences, and this bill corrects the omission of new lawful cellar residences from those bills. This technical fix will enable the city to make it as simple and straightforward as possible for homeowners to add safe ADUs to their properties and to be able rent their cellar ADU.

Thank you for your continued partnership in expanding access to safe, affordable housing for New Yorkers. We look forward to working closely with Speaker Menin, Chair Sanchez and the Council this legislative session to deliver meaningful results for New Yorkers across the city.