NYU's Furman Center Launches Database of NYC's Subsidized Housing Units

(From left to right) NYC HPD Commissioner Matt Wambua, HDC President (rear) Marc Jahr, and HUD RA Adolfo Carrión

Regional Administrator Adolfo Carrión joined a myriad of New York City's government leaders, developers, owners, lenders and housing advocacy groups at an evening reception launching NYU's Furman Center's Subsidized Housing Information Project (SHIP), an interactive database of the city's affordable housing units. The database consolidates information from 50 separate public and private data sources into one searchable website, now available at: www.furmancenter.org/data/search. The new resource-which provides the most comprehensive overview of subsidized housing in New York City available - is the result of an ongoing, multi-year partnership with HUD, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), and the New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR).

SHIP allows government agencies, housing and community advocates, the media, and the public to access extensive information on every privately-owned, publicly-subsidized affordable property developed with four key government programs: HUD financing and insurance, HUD project-based rental assistance, the New York City and New York State Mitchell-Lama programs, or Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). The Furman Center's Institute for Affordable Housing Policy has also released a set of online resources to help users navigate the SHIP database, including a Directory of New York City's Affordable Housing Programs. One vital function of the database is to track subsidized housing units that are at risk of expiring out of regulatory agreements. The Institute for Affordable Housing Policy's accompanying report, State of New York City's Subsidized Housing: 2011, uses SHIP data to identify 227 properties throughout the city that are at-risk of expiring out of affordability programs by the end of 2015.

The preservation of the city's affordable housing stock has been a principal tenet of Mayor Bloomberg's New Housing Marketplace Plan (NHMP). The most ambitious municipal housing plan in the nation, the NHMP is on track to finance the preservation and creation of 165,000 units of affordable housing. To date HPD and HDC have financed more than 124,500 units, and are on track to complete the NHMP by Fiscal Year 2014. The SHIP database will serve to augment and enhance New York City's robust and ongoing preservation strategy, as well as improve access to cross-agency information and data, and enhance relationships between governmental and non-governmental partners who are working toward the mutual goal of creating comprehensive preservation strategies for the near- and long-term.

The SHIP will strengthen an already productive relationship between HUD, HPD, and HDC. In 2009, HDC purchased a portfolio of federal HUD-held loans on 10 distressed multi-family properties in New York totaling 1,763 units. Additionally, HPD's HUD Multifamily Loan Program financed the rehabilitation of 1,134 units in Fiscal Year 2011, and anticipates preserving another 1,000 units in Fiscal Year 2012. SHIP provides an additional opportunity to identify properties most at-risk for financial and physical distress, so that the agencies can work in unison to efficiently target their resources for rehabilitation and recapitalization for properties and portfolios where there is a shared interest. In addition, the SHIP database has the potential to serve as a model for other cities facing similar affordable housing preservation challenges.

"The need to preserve and increase the availability of affordable housing is a national challenge," said Carrión. "We are glad to be part of a model that can help track risk and identify preservation opportunities. I think this will be immensely helpful to local officials and policy makers across the country in developing better tools to address the growing need for affordable housing."

Content Archived: December 2, 2013