Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Council hearing spotlights Housing Connect flaws; HPD outlines redesign, supports notification and in‑person assistance bills
Summary
At a New York City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings hearing, Chair Council Member Birina Sanchez focused the panel on long‑standing problems with the city’s affordable housing lottery platform, Housing Connect, and on three bills intended to improve applicant outreach and in‑person assistance.
At a New York City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings hearing, Chair Council Member Birina Sanchez focused the panel on long‑standing problems with the city’s affordable housing lottery platform, Housing Connect, and on three bills intended to improve applicant outreach and in‑person assistance.
The bills discussed were Intro 1264 (allowing applicants to apply directly to specific rerental units on Housing Connect), Intro 1265 (allowing applicants to designate a designee to receive lottery notifications by email or text), and Intro 1266 (establishing an in‑person Housing Connect assistance program at community centers and recreation centers). The hearing also included separate testimony on Intro 1207, which would allow time spent in a New York State‑approved apprenticeship to count toward the supervised work requirement for a high‑pressure boiler operating engineer license.
“Today, the New York City Council is holding an oversight hearing on … the affordable housing lottery and the flawed platform that our city uses to administer the lottery, Housing Connect,” Chair Birina Sanchez said in opening remarks, framing the hearing around accessibility and system performance. Sanchez cited the scale of demand: between January 2014 and June 2020, she said, Housing Connect received 29,000,000 applications compared with 27,819 leases signed, “one lease issued for every 1,000 applications.”
Acting Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Ahmed Tigani described steps the agency is taking and reiterated that a full redesign of Housing Connect is already underway. “We’re not managing…this Housing Connect system. We’re breaking it down. We’re taking in and assessing feedback, and we are rebuilding it to be faster, more responsive, and easier to navigate,” Tigani told the committee. He cited recent administrative changes HPD has implemented: removing some credit checks for voucher…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
