November 20, 2023 — Stepping into a New Era of Housing Access + Information: The City's Housing Department 

City Officially Launches New “HPD Online” Following a Wildly Successful Soft Rollout 

Staggering 2.3 Million Unique Users and over 12 Million Online Interactions Reached in Just Six Months During Soft Launch Period 

New York, NY – Today, New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) officially launched the new HPD Online, a user-friendly platform designed to provide tenants, owners, and advocates with essential information about the safety of where we live. Whether you are looking for information about your current home, a new apartment you are interested in renting, or a building you would like to buy, HPD Online is committed to ensuring quality housing for all New Yorkers by helping tenants understand the conditions that may exist at a residential property. As part of HPD’s commitment to quality housing for all New Yorkers and transparency about the agency’s activity protecting that quality, in May of this year, the agency unveiled the revamp of its online platform, HPD Online. Since the platform’s soft launch, the site has over 12 million views on all pages and 2.3 million users visiting the portal.

Reimagining HPD Online is not just about better technology; it’s a critical part of addressing the city’s housing crisis—as the common saying goes, information is power. As outlined in Mayor Eric Adams's Housing Our Neighbors Blueprint, every New Yorker should have access to a safe and healthy home as poor housing conditions can have a negative impact on health outcomes and worsen existing health disparities across New York City. Add to that, climate change hazards such as flooding, frigid winters, and extreme heat can pose a risk to residents and communities, and pests, non-self-closing doors, and mold can threaten tenant's health. The new HPD Online ensures that every New Yorker can stay informed about their housing conditions, complaints filed, violations issued, and repairs in progress or completed by the city.

“Access to critical housing resources is not a luxury – it’s a necessity to fulfill our mission of creating safe, permanent, and affordable housing for all New Yorkers,” said HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr. “The redesigned HPD Online acts as a bridge, breaking down the barriers between New Yorkers, their local government, and building owners, offering an intuitive and user-friendly portal that places vital government information right at your fingertips.”

"The new HPD Online is an easy to use, centralized resource for finding important information about residential buildings," said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. "Tenants, property owners, and advocates can now easily stay informed about building conditions by using HPD Online. This state-of-the art online resource will definitely be a go-to source for information here in Queens and throughout our city."

“Dignified affordable housing is every tenant’s right, but for too long, complaints lodged to HPD against building owners have languished often allowing dangerous conditions to persist,” said Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson.  "HPD Online will create transparency for tenants and ensure efficient follow-ups. The accessible platform will allow HPD to track the progress of a complaint from the moment it is submitted, to when repair crews are dispatched and the job completed. I want to thank and applaud HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrion, Jr. for his commitment to protect and safeguard New York City’s affordable housing stock through HPD Online.”

"I am thrilled to see the relaunch of HPD Online, a crucial and user-friendly platform that empowers tenants, owners, and advocates with essential information about the safety of their living spaces. In a city as dynamic as New York, access to transparent and up-to-date information about residential building conditions is paramount. The success of the soft launch, with over 2.3 million users and 12 million views, demonstrates the high demand for such a tool. HPD Online plays a pivotal role in fostering accountability and ensuring that tenants can easily track complaints, violations, charges, legal disputes, and more. This innovative platform aligns with our commitment to transparency and will undoubtedly be an invaluable resource for our community. I commend the Housing Preservation & Development for their dedication to enhancing the housing experience for all New Yorkers,” said Council Member Eric Dinowitz.

"The revitalized HPD Online platform delivers a user-friendly portal that empowers tenants, property owners, and advocates. By providing critical data about housing safety and administrative assistance, the public has better access to much needed information about their housing conditions, complaints, violations, and repairs,” said Council Member Julie Menin.

"I applaud HPD for rolling out this revamped platform with increased ease of use for tenants who all too often are stymied in their attempts to track complaints, violations, charges, legal disputes, and more," said Council Member Tiffany Cabán. "Tenants are already forced to endure a relentless series of rent hikes and opposition from an extremely powerful real estate lobby -- we shouldn't be making their lives even harder by putting up barriers to accessing this sort of vital information. With this relaunch, HPD is removing barriers."

"New Yorkers deserve to know exactly what is going on in their own buildings. HPD Online offers tenants and owners a sense of security in their home, giving clear information on their residential building conditions. No one should go to sleep questioning how well their building has adhered to basic safety codes," said Council Member Shaun Abreu.

"As we tackle the housing crisis and overwhelmed shelter system, it is important to equip New Yorkers and our agencies with the tools to easily report and track violations to ensure we can enforce tenant rights and hold bad players accountable," said Council Member Carmen De La Rosa.

“Modernizing government agencies for a digital-first society will have enormously positive impacts on our communities, especially those that rely on government services,” said Julie Samuels, President & Executive Director of Tech:NYC. “Access to reliable information is a foundational step toward ensuring New Yorkers can more easily source safe and healthy housing. This is a clear, high-impact example of how tech can be used to support all communities.”

HPD Online was relaunched with a vision to provide tenants and owners with an effortless and transparent window into government information about residential building conditions. The website was designed to provide important information, including:

• Explore tens of thousands of apartments throughout the five boroughs of New York City.
• Easily tracking of the types of complaints filed, complaint outcomes and open violations.
• Information about who owns and manages residential buildings.
• Information about various charges that a building may incur when an agency takes enforcement action against it. These charges are an indication of the building's responsiveness or lack thereof. They are usually imposed when an owner fails to make necessary repairs, which results in the agency having to conduct emergency repairs and repeated inspections.
• Housing court actions initiated by tenants or HPD against property owners.
• Special enforcement activity or other high-level information about the building.

After the redesign, HPD Online has garnered over 2.3 million users and over 12 million views due to HPD making several updates toward a more user-friendly platform. Although the previous website offered most of the same information as the revamped version, it was difficult to navigate, not mobile-friendly, and it failed to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. To address these issues, HPD's technology team incorporated feedback from user surveys and focus groups and developed a new and improved HPD Online that incorporated modern human-centric design. Now, HPD Online is more accessible, allowing people with disabilities to view and experience the website using any assistive device of their choice. The website also has multilingual support, allowing users to easily translate the content into any of the top 10 citywide supported languages. In addition, the updated website enables users to sort and filter information to focus on specific apartments, types of conditions, and periods of time. Users can now print clear and readable formats of the information, whether they need to keep records of violations to initiate a tenant action in Housing Court or to provide summaries of work to superintendents.

Tenants can easily keep track of complaints and violations by using HPD Online. Complaints can be filed by calling 311 or using 311ONLINE or the 311MOBILE app. Once a complaint is filed, a unique service request number is issued, which will allow tenants to actively follow along as the complaint makes its way through HPD’s system. HPD will attempt to contact the tenant to check if the issue has been resolved. If it has, the complaint will be considered closed. However, if the issue persists or HPD is unable to reach the tenant, an inspector will be sent to inspect the issue. If a violation is found, HPD will send a Notice of Violation to the managing agent, instructing them to fix the issue within a specific period.

Building owners can also log in to HPD Online to access various administrative tools. The Owner Services Dashboard offers links to online applications and processes that allow owners to register their property, file e-certifications, update annual reports, and apply for a Certificate of No Harassment.

This revitalization stands as a testament to the department's commitment to transforming the vision of secure, affordable, and long-term housing into a tangible reality for every New Yorker. HPD dedicates a significant amount of resources to ensuring the safety of tenants and notifying owners about any conditions that require repair. Every year, HPD responds to hundreds of thousands of complaints and issues an equal number of violations, initiates litigation against thousands of buildings, and conducts enhanced enforcement to improve conditions in hundreds of buildings.

All New Yorkers, whether they are tenants, owners, or new renters, should have access to information about the quality of their building. This will empower them to take necessary actions or know what steps the city is taking to improve the living conditions. Looking forward, HPD is committed to further evolving the platform to meet the changing needs of the community and continuing its mission to empower New York City residents with vital housing resources.

 "The focus of the new system was to design an interface to provide exceptional content, seamless access across all devices, and prioritize customer satisfaction. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of the HPD Tech team and our business partners, we delivered an outstanding product to the people of New York, and the high viewership is a testament to the success of HPD Online," said HPD Chief Information Officer Prashant Thakker.

There was even an optimistic response from members of the NYC media, a notoriously difficult group to impress:

“Really helpful new redesign for @NYCHousing’s HPD Online tool,” said David Brand, Housing Reporter Gothamist and WNYC.

“New HPD site tells you if your building is rent stabilized! Historically tough to track down, and sometimes required sending a rent history request to HCR https://hpdonline.nyc.gov/hpdonline/,” said Patrick Spauster, Data Journalist, writer, and urban planner focusing on cities and housing