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Council Member Justin Brannan's opening remarks on HPD budget and housing crisis
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145 sec
Council Member Justin Brannan opens the executive budget hearing for FY 2026, focusing on the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). He highlights the ongoing housing crisis in New York City and expresses concern over the proposed budget cuts to HPD at a time when more action is needed.
- Brannan points out that the proposed FY 2026 budget for HPD is $1.6 billion, which is nearly $90 million less than in the preliminary plan.
- He emphasizes the need to fill nearly 400 vacancies at HPD to address the housing crisis effectively.
- The council member calls for increased capital investments in real projects and filling roles that finance, build, and preserve affordable housing.
Justin Brannan
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Thank you, Sergeant.
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Okay.
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Good morning and welcome to day three of our executive budget hearings for FY twenty six.
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Today we're taking a hard look at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
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I'm Councilmember Justin Brannen.
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I chair the Committee on Finance.
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Proud to be joined by my good friend and colleague and partner in this work, Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, who chairs the Committee on Housing and Buildings.
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We've been joined this morning by Councilmembers Lewis, Moya, Abreu, Powers, Williams, and Carr.
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I also want to thank everyone who makes these hearings possible.
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The finance team back at Mission Control and everyone here today, especially Jack Story and Dan Croup and our committee counsel Brian Sarfo, senior advisor John Yedin, and all the analysts and support staff who put in serious work behind the scenes.
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As a former staffer, I know that the staff does all the hard work.
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So we see you and we appreciate you.
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Welcome Acting Commissioner Tegani and the entire HPD team.
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Let's be clear.
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We can all agree we're in a housing crisis.
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Families are being priced out.
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NYCHA is crumbling.
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New affordable housing isn't getting built fast enough.
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And now HPD's proposed FY twenty six budget is $1,600,000,000 which is nearly $90,000,000 less than what it was in the preliminary plan.
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That's a cut of almost 20% at the exact moment when we need to be doing more and not less.
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None of this screams housing crisis to me.
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This budget funds enforcement, rental subsidies, emergency work, and some long overdue cost of living increases for our human services workers, which we appreciate.
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All of that is important.
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But we're also looking at nearly 400 vacancies at HPD.
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And that's not just a staffing issue.
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It's a housing issue.
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If we don't have the people to get the work done, the housing crisis will only get worse.
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In our preliminary budget response, the council called on the administration to fill these vacancies, especially in the roles that finance, build, and preserve affordable housing and to boost capital investments in real projects.
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That's how we move the needle.
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So today we're going to dig in.
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How does this budget meet the moment?
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What's the plan to make HPD whole and get more affordable housing out the door?
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With that, I'm going to turn it over to my co chair, Council Member Sanchez, for her opening statement.