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Council approves bill to track vacant supportive housing units after citing thousands of empty placements
Summary
The council approved Intro 7‑91a to require the Department of Social Services to publish counts and percentages of vacant supportive housing units and vacancy‑stage data. Sponsors cited roughly 5,000 vacant supportive units and urged a dashboard to connect people to housing; the item was adopted on the general‑orders calendar.
The City Council advanced Intro 7‑91a, a measure requiring the Department of Social Services to post on its website the total number and percentage of vacant supportive housing units and the number of vacant units at different stages of placement.
Council Member Lincoln Ressler and other sponsors argued the data dashboard will provide oversight and accountability for a patchwork of supportive housing programs. Council Member Justin Brannan and others noted the council allocated $1.3 million in the FY2026 budget to launch related initiatives. Council Member Ressler said there were approximately 5,000 vacant supportive units and 6,000 vacant NYCHA units referenced during debate — figures used to illustrate programmatic underspending and placement delays.
The bill was reported out of committee amended and coupled on general orders and recorded as adopted on the general‑orders calendar. The general‑orders adoption roll call lists most items as 46–0–0; Intro 7‑91a was not listed among the exceptions and thus was included in the adopted items.
Sponsors called the bill a step to improve transparency so case managers and agencies can quickly identify vacancies and place people in need. The transcript does not include an implementation timeline or the exact data fields DSS will publish; those operational details will be developed by the agency following adoption.
