Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
AGENCY TESTIMONY
Introduction and overview of NYC's housing crisis
0:09:22
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128 sec
Ahmed Tigani, Acting Commissioner of HPD, introduces the hearing on Housing Connect and provides an overview of the current housing crisis in New York City. He emphasizes the urgency of the situation, highlighting extremely low vacancy rates and rising rents.
- Vacancy rates are alarmingly low: 1.4% overall, 0.94% for apartments priced at $2,400 and less, and less than 0.39% for homes at $1,100.
- The housing crisis is described as not looming, but already present.
- Tigani stresses the need for urgency, clarity, and purpose in addressing the housing issues.
Ahmed Tigani
0:09:22
Good morning Chair Sanchez, members of the committee, and all our partners that help make affordable housing possible in New York City.
0:09:30
My name is Ahmed Tegani and I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak with you today as the acting commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
0:09:38
Thank you for inviting me here and for allowing me to be joined by my team, the deputy commissioner of housing access and stability, Meryl Bloch Weissman, and the associate commissioner of housing opportunity opportunity and placement services, Emily Osgood.
0:09:53
We are grateful for the chance to discuss one of the most powerful tools in HPD's mission to expand access to affordable housing, the Housing Connect lottery.
0:10:03
We talk to New Yorkers every day who are doing everything they can to stay in this city.
0:10:07
Some have only ever known this place as home.
0:10:10
People working one or two jobs to make ends meet, single parents, frontline workers, retired New Yorkers on fixed incomes who helped shape the neighborhoods we love.
0:10:19
These residents are now seeking access to affordable housing opportunities that meet them where they are at a cost they can afford in a neighborhood that they love.
0:10:27
We hear from children that grew up in this city and now adults returning home after college in search of new opportunity and families who want nothing more than a stable, affordable home where they can raise their children in peace.
0:10:40
Today, we find ourselves in a moment of real urgency with a frightening low vacancy rate of just 1.4% for all apartments.
0:10:47
And to break it down further, 0.94% for apartments priced at 2,400 and less, and then less than 0.39% for homes at 1,100, we're at virtually zero for extremely low income families.
0:11:03
The the housing crisis is not looming, it's here.
0:11:06
Rents continue to rise while demand for affordable housing far outpaces that supply.
0:11:12
For too many New Yorkers, the process of securing housing feels like a full time job in itself.
0:11:19
It's complicated, it can be slow, it's filled with uncertainty.
0:11:23
This is a moment that calls for all of us and calls on all of us to move with urgency, clarity and purpose.