Council hearing spotlights long NYCHA vacancy waits and slow transfers; bill would require public reporting

The New York City Council Committee on Public Housing held an oversight hearing on vacancies and transfers at the New York City Housing Authority and discussed Intro 111, legislation that would require NYCHA to report publicly on units vacant for more than 30 continuous days.

Committee Chair Council Member Chris Banks opened the hearing by stressing the stakes. "Public housing is a gem of this country for nearly a hundred years," he said, and added that the committee was focused on how to get people into safe, decent public housing more quickly.

The hearing focused on three linked problems: the number of vacant NYCHA apartments, the time it takes to turn a vacant unit into a leasable apartment, and lengthy waits for tenant transfer requests. NYCHA Chief Operating Officer Eva Trimble told the committee that, as of June 1, NYCHA classified 5,969 units as "vacant available," 1,712 as "temporarily off the rent roll," and 1,797 as "permanently off the rent roll," with just over 809 units already matched to prospective tenants. Trimble attributed much of the delay to expanded environmental remediation at turnover, saying that lead and asbestos testing and abatement add time: "lead and asbestos testing and abatement take typically 4 to 6 months."

Trimble gave additional figures for the committee record: NYCHA has cleared lead-based paint in more than 16,000 apartments since December 2021 and has abated asbestos floor tiles in more than 7,500 apartments; the authority is currently clearing lead in about 325 apartments per month and abating 160–200 asbestos cases per month. She estimated about $17,000 to complete lead testing and abatement in a unit and about $25,000 for asbestos testing and abatement. NYCHA also reported an average apartment turnaround time of 352 days (down from 456 days last year) and a current vacancy rate of 4.46%. Trimble said NYCHA has increased its monthly turnover to roughly 535 apartments since last June.

Advocates, residents, and tenant leaders told the committee those figures understate the human costs. Tanisha Grant, executive director of Parent Support and Parents New York, said medically necessary transfers and other urgent requests have been delayed for years: "These conversions were supposed to improve our NYCHA residents' quality of life. Instead, it has caused extreme mental illness and more health issues." Shaquasia Spears, a long-time NYCHA resident, described being denied a transfer after her building converted to RAD/PAC and said her approved transfer was closed by NYCHA lease housing staff during the conversion process.

Community advocates raised additional concerns about how NYCHA classifies and holds units. Leila Logeziko, a community advocate, said the Fulton Elliott Chelsea redevelopment materials show a reduction of units from 2,073 to 2,056 with no public explanation and that units have been "warehoused" to facilitate relocations tied to redevelopment. Resident leaders from Fulton and other developments said at least one apartment has been used as office space for a private relocation contractor; they called that a misuse of scarce housing.

Legal-service providers and tenant-rights groups described how slow transfers affect vulnerable people. Anna Luft of the New York Legal Assistance Group and Luis Henriques of Manhattan Legal Services gave examples of disabled residents and survivors of violence who waited years for transfers and, in some cases, suffered severe harm while waiting. NYCHA officials acknowledged long waits for specific categories: they said standard applicants face about four years on the wait list, standard transfers about two-and-a-half years, emergency transfers on average close to two years, and reasonable accommodation transfers about two-and-a-half years. NYCHA later clarified that roughly 1,700–1,800 reasonable-accommodation transfer requests are pending and that 442 are awaiting accessible apartments.

Council members pressed NYCHA on transparency. Council Member Aviles, sponsor of Intro 111, told the committee the bill is intended to supplement public-facing data already on NYCHA's metrics page by requiring a report on units vacant more than 30 days and the reasons for each prolonged vacancy. NYCHA replied that it already publishes monthly aggregate vacancy counts on its website but that tracking and publishing a specific, standardized reason for every prolonged vacancy would be burdensome and require mapping to HUD reporting codes. NYCHA said its primary categories for holding units off the rent roll are to facilitate relocations for comprehensive modernization or PACT/RAD conversions, to hold fire-damaged or severely damaged units, and to reserve space for community or management uses.

Funding and operations drew repeated attention. NYCHA told the panel the city provided roughly $75 million for the vacant unit readiness program in the current fiscal year (presented as about $39 million in expense funding and $36 million in capital funding); NYCHA said that funding represents roughly 20% of its vacant-unit work costs. NYCHA also noted a new $25 million state allocation for vacant-unit work that it is preparing to access. Advocates urged additional city capital to speed turnarounds and asked that NYCHA publicly report not only vacancy counts but also what hiring and operational steps it is taking to fill positions and reduce turnover times.

The committee received a mix of suggested remedies from witnesses: resident training and "resident repair corps" models under HUD Section 3 to hire local residents for rehab work; improved, development-level public dashboards updated more frequently than an annual report; stronger tracking and protections for transfer applicants during conversions to RAD/PAC; and clearer public accounting of units reclassified as non-dwelling or taken off the rent roll. NYCHA said it is proposing changes to its Tenant Selection and Assignment Plan (TSAP) — moving from a four-tier to a three-tier selection system and changing rotation rules — and that the draft FY 2026 annual plan describing those changes was released for public review on June 13, with a public hearing scheduled for July 30.

What happened next: Intro 111 (the reporting bill) was discussed but not voted on at the hearing; NYCHA agreed to provide follow-up data the committee requested, including development-level vacancy breakdowns, details on units held for modernization, and information on staffing and hiring for turnover operations.

Ending: Residents and advocates told the council the vacancy and transfer problems are producing real harm today — from seniors living amid mold to domestic-violence survivors waiting months or years for moves — and they asked the council to pair transparency requirements with funding and operational changes to shorten wait times and protect people during redevelopments.