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Councilmember Restler seeks public reporting of vacant supportive‑housing units, cites 5,000 vacant units
Summary
Intro 791‑a would require the Department of Social Services to publish counts and vacancy‑stage data for supportive housing units citywide. Sponsor Lincoln Restler said the city currently has some 5,000 vacant supportive units and called for monthly public reporting to identify responsible agencies and accelerate placements.
Council Member Lincoln Restler presented Intro 791‑a, a bill that would require the Department of Social Services to publish on its website the total number and percentage of supportive housing units that are vacant and to report the number of vacancies by stage in the placement process.
Restler said the legislation is modeled on a San Francisco system and would produce monthly public reports indicating which program or agency is responsible for a vacancy and how long each unit has been idle. He argued the city currently has roughly 5,000 vacant supportive units and called that figure “disgraceful,” saying the data would make it possible to move people from the street into permanent housing more quickly.
Restler added that, paired with transparency, the data would reveal whether city or state agencies are responsible for vacancies and would allow the council and the public to hold those agencies accountable. He noted similar vacancies in public housing and said the combined shortfall represents an opportunity to house thousands of New Yorkers if vacancies were addressed.
The transcript records the sponsor’s presentation and his description of the public‑reporting approach. It does not include the bill’s final vote or implementation details such as agency reporting formats beyond the required monthly public reports described by Restler.
