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Q&A
Discussion on measuring housing preservation and production
2:10:11
·
144 sec
Council Member Restler and Deputy Commissioner Joffe discuss the importance of measuring both the preservation and loss of rent-stabilized housing units over time. They agree that tracking the net change in units is a valuable indicator of progress in housing preservation efforts.
- Joffe emphasizes the need to look at trends over longer periods rather than year-to-year changes
- The discussion highlights the importance of this metric as a 'north star' for HPD's progress
- Both agree on the value of incorporating this measure into HPD's reporting and metrics
Lincoln Restler
2:10:11
we really appreciate your commitment to trying to protect and preserve rent stabilized housing.
2:10:16
And I guess accordingly, the chair wants to understand, do you think measuring housing preservation production by net addition or net loss in a given year is a sensible indicator for us to be tracking?
2:10:27
Do you think that measuring preservation simply by the amount added without accounting for the net loss is an accurate demonstration of our progress?
2:11:39
Right.
2:11:40
Whether RGB's data or HCR's data, I think the chair's point is shouldn't we be measuring both the units that we're preserving and creating in the run stabilized system and the units that we're losing and tracking that net total each year as a key benchmark for our progress.
2:11:56
And I think you're saying yes to that.
2:12:27
don't I think I don't think the chair's point is on in any given year, it's about this is a benchmark for how
2:12:33
our progress over time.
Lucy Joffe
2:10:40
If I may, it is one measure at which we look.
2:10:44
I can't speak directly to the RGB's reports.
2:10:48
We do coordinate with them on a lot of data.
2:10:51
We provide a lot of our data.
2:10:53
We have looked over long time periods precisely at this as an indicator of health of our housing stock and really have, we believe, stemmed a lot of the tide of exiting units from rent stabilization.
2:11:09
But overall, that is something that we sounded the alarm about for years and was a big concern.
2:11:17
That being said, there can be a lot of noise or abnormalities in the data.
2:11:23
So it's not the only thing that we would look at because units could be leaving RGB's records for a number of reasons and I'd want to be able to dig in more to it.
2:11:33
We would want to look at a number of factors we look at as we sort of assess the overall health.
2:11:57
I'm saying yes.
2:11:58
I think it's more than a year over year thing.
2:12:00
I think if you just look at what happened in any one given year, you pick up some sort of what the technical folks on my team seem to call noise.
2:12:09
But I think over longer periods of time it's absolutely what we're looking at and making sure that we are adding, we are keeping our existing rent stabilized stock, particularly the low cost rent stabilized stock, and that we are adding to it as much as possible.
2:12:24
I would just sort of caution that on a one year basis, any of these I
2:12:34
Then, yes, we would agree.
Edna Wells Handy
2:12:32
we're tracking