Squeezed NYC affordable housing properties face reckoning

New York City’s regulated affordable housing sector is confronting a worsening financial squeeze, and a reckoning is coming unless solutions emerge, according to a new survey of owners, managers, lenders and other industry participants. The survey by affordable housing nonprofit NYC Housing Partnership found that 62% of respondents said operating costs have risen to unsustainable levels. None reported improved financial conditions. “There is general agreement across various parts of the affordable housing industry – whether it’s city and state governments, the not-for-profit sector, the for-profit sector – that do-nothing is not an option here,” Molly Wasow Park, NYC Housing Partnership‘s president and CEO, said in an interview with HousingWire TBD. The survey results dovetail with landlords suing the city over a rent freeze the Rent Guidelines Board approved June 25. Mayor Zohran Mamdani scored a win on a key campaign promise. But landlords sued, and the city faces an August 14 deadline to respond. Though not directly connected, the survey, conducted June 18-26, backs a key landlord argument: that the board did not accurately factor in rising costs. Taxes, water charges, insurance...