Q&A
Comparison of payment speed between DHS and HPD for contractors
1:17:21
·
116 sec
Council Member Brannan raises concerns about developers choosing shelter contracts over housing development due to faster payments from DHS compared to HPD. Commissioner Park explains the differences in financing structures between shelter and affordable housing development.
- Some housing developers are engaging in shelter contracts due to quicker payments from DHS
- Commissioner Park emphasizes the need for both affordable housing and shelter capacity
- The difference in timelines is partly due to the scarcity of federal low-income housing tax credits for affordable housing development
- Shelter financing has a different structure and timeline compared to affordable housing
- Commissioner Park stresses the importance of maintaining both shelter and housing development efforts
Justin L. Brannan
1:17:21
Because what some of us are seeing is that it seems that OMB or DHS is approving payments for contracts much quicker than anywhere else.
1:17:31
I mean, I have, you know, I have, housing developers who are now engaging in shelter contracts purely and they're they've never done this before, but they're doing this basically because they're telling me DHS pays them quicker than HPD does.
Molly Wasow Park
1:17:50
So what I think is happening here and, I'm I'm interpreting a little bit.
1:17:56
So, in terms of shelter versus housing development and let me start by saying this is a this is an and not an or.
1:18:07
We, as a city, desperately need affordable housing, and I wanna thank the city council for the the city of yes vote last week.
1:18:15
I think that is incredibly important.
1:18:18
But we are also in a city with literally a 1000000 low income rent rent burdened households.
1:18:23
So for for the time being, we are also gonna need shelter.
1:18:28
In New York City, virtually all new housing construction depends on the availability of federal low income housing tax credits.
1:18:37
This is a finite resource.
1:18:40
I won't go too far down the rabbit hole, and and I'm speaking in my former HPD hat, rather than my current seat.
1:18:48
But those are those are a scarce resource as allocated by the federal government, but they provide a really critical source of equity for affordable housing development.
1:18:57
Because those are finite, there is a pipeline between, you know, how long it it when you are gonna get into the queue for for a low income housing tax credit allocation.
1:19:08
Financing for shelter development looks different, so that that queue, and the amount of time that it takes to do development and how long a site might be
