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Q&A
HPD's preservation targets and staffing progress
0:44:07
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Council Member Pierina Sanchez inquires about HPD's preservation targets and staffing progress. Kim Darga, Deputy Commissioner for Development, responds with information on HPD's approach to preservation and recent improvements in staffing.
- HPD sets overall production targets and budgets based on incoming preservation applications
- Preservation demand can vary significantly depending on market characteristics
- HPD serves a wide range of properties, from single-family homes to Mitchell-Lama co-ops
- The agency has made progress in reducing vacancy rates and hired temporary staff to address backlogs
- City of Yes initiative has provided additional resources and staffing capacity for preservation
Pierina Sanchez
0:44:07
Thank you, council member Dinowitz, and I just want to echo that is a concern that we hear all the time, not only the need for family size units to be subsidized through HPD's programs, but also the size of the rooms within those family size units is something that council members talk about a lot.
0:44:24
So look forward to more on that.
0:44:25
Please if we can go back to the question, I know baby girl.
0:44:30
Oh bingo, yep.
0:44:31
If we can go back to the question on the MMR and PMMR targets regarding preservation.
Kim Darga
0:44:38
Sure, So we set an overall production target.
0:44:46
In general, we've been trying to, with preservation specifically, we look at the applications we're getting in, and then we budget for what we need in the upcoming year in order to address the demand that we're seeing.
0:45:03
Preservation demand can really change a lot depending on characteristics within the market.
0:45:10
As you said, we are seeing increased demand recently.
0:45:15
There's a lot of variation within preservation itself.
0:45:19
We serve everyone from single family homeowners to rent stabilized properties, Mitchell Lama co ops, HDFC, so really wide range of properties.
0:45:30
And so looking at the applications and what's coming in is really important so we can make sure that we're allocating the capital resources specifically where we need them.
0:45:39
We have made just on the capacity front, we have made a lot of progress on staffing.
0:45:47
And I will say that so the vacancy rate there has dropped a lot.
0:45:52
We also supplemented those kind of staff resources with hiring temps to help us get through some of the backlog that we saw when we lost a lot of staff during the pandemic.
0:46:07
We also are very fortunate and appreciate your support through City of Yes.
0:46:11
We both on the capital side, we do expect that a significant amount of those resources will go to preservation.
0:46:19
But also we added staffing capacity in preservation finance specifically.