Council presses HPD on whether FY27 budget and staffing match sweeping 'Block‑by‑Block' housing plan

HPD Commissioner Dina Levy told the City Council on May 12 that the agency’s FY27 executive budget and the mayor’s Block‑by‑Block housing plan together aim to build 200,000 new homes and preserve 200,000 more over the next decade. Levy said the executive plan increases HPD’s capital commitments and includes new investment intended to finance roughly 16,000 deeply affordable homes over the next two years and a dedicated $1 billion for supportive housing.

The hearing, led by Council Members Linda Lee and Pyina Sanchez, focused on whether the agency has the staff and operational capacity to deliver the plan. “The central question before us today is whether the housing plan’s ambition is met in the proposed executive plan budget for fiscal year 27,” Chair Pyina Sanchez said, noting fires and maintenance failures in the Bronx and other outer boroughs.

Levy outlined four priorities: simplify agency processes, build more housing faster, preserve existing affordable housing and protect tenants. She said HPD will add 27 development‑team staff in total tied to speed‑report reforms and that 23 inspector hires are already in process to boost code‑enforcement capacity. “We will continue to grow our code enforcement appropriately so that we can meet all the commitments laid out in the housing plan,” Levy said.

Council members pressed HPD about how the agency reconciled vacancy reductions that appear as savings with plans to hire additional staff. HPD witnesses said the executive plan baselines 56 vacancies out to FY30 (older, absorbed or consolidated positions) while adding 41 new heads for FY27 and intends to fill more than 300 currently open lines after completing the vacancy‑reconciliation exercise.

Lawmakers also pressed on enforcement and public‑safety links to housing. Sanchez and others raised a recent uptick in fires, citing FDNY testimony that electrical systems are a primary driver; Levy said HPD is coordinating with FDNY and emergency management and is still assessing causal patterns before proposing code‑level changes. She described a multi‑pronged “Fix the City” enforcement effort that pairs litigation, portfolio inspections and coordinated inter‑agency enforcement days aimed at the city’s worst landlords.

The hearing also covered program details: increased funding for homeownership (including Home First and a new co‑op conversion pilot called Our Home), a raised home‑fix loan cap to $100,000, ADU and basement conversion incentives and a commitment to prioritize development that deepens affordability (an HPD target to reduce initial rent burdens for very‑low‑income households down to about 25% of income for certain financed projects).

Several council members sought more specificity and follow‑up: requests included a breakdown of which HPD units and divisions will absorb the vacancy reductions, a list of jobs being added to the development office, a pipeline analysis of 485X registrations and a schedule for how mitigation of the Bronx fire surge will be grounded in FDNY data.

The hearing closed with the committee and HPD agreeing to provide additional follow‑up materials requested by council members and a reminder that public testimony will continue on June 10. The exchange left open several near‑term accountability items: which specific vacancies will be eliminated, the timetable for the new inspector hires, and the firm schedule and metrics HPD will adopt to move from commitments on paper to completed projects and preserved units.