The Real Estate Board of New York to The City Council Housing & Buildings Committee

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The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) is the City’s leading real estate trade association, representing commercial, residential, and institutional property owners, builders, managers, investors, brokers, salespeople, and other professionals active in New York City real estate. REBNY appreciates the opportunity to provide feedback regarding several bills of interest to our members.

Intro 66:

Subject: A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, the New York city building code, and the New York city fire code, in relation to shared housing

Sponsors: Councilmembers Erik Bottcher, Virginia Maloney, Harvey Epstein, Farah Louis

New York City is in the throes of a housing crisis driven by a severe lack of new production and an insufficient supply of affordable housing needed to meet the City’s diverse socioeconomic needs. The need to produce more housing is more acute than ever, and shared housing models represent an additional pathway model for the toolbox. REBNY supports Intro. 66 which would permit this model in the local building code.

Intro 71:

Subject: A Local Law to amend the New York city building code, in relation to requiring permit holders responsible for sidewalk sheds or scaffolding to repair or replace certain damaged cityowned trees

Sponsors: Councilmembers Erik Bottcher, Pierina Sanchez, Shaun Abreu, Farah Louis

This bill would require the permit holder of a sidewalk shed or scaffolding to repair or replace, within six months, any City-owned tree that is damaged as a result of the use or placement of equipment. While the intent of this bill is laudable, the legislation is vague and requires more detail. For example, there needs to be a definition of “damage” that clarifies a threshold for when tree work or replacement is required to avoid removing trees that do not need to be wholly replaced. In addition, the bill should only apply to tree damage that is directly caused by a sidewalk shed or scaffold, to avoid situations where a tree is damaged if, for example, a windstorm causes the tree to hit an adjacent shed or scaffold. Finally, the bill should not require work to be done within 6 months and should instead call for work to be done in a reasonable time, as determined in conjunction with the department. Among other things, it may not be a good idea to replace a tree while a construction project is ongoing if it can be done more safely and efficiently at the conclusion of a project.

Intro 427:

Subject: A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to how affordable housing units which subsequently became vacant are rented through the housing portal

Sponsors: Councilmembers Pierina Sanchez, Farah Louis, Oswald Feliz, Crystal Hudson, Jennifer Gutierrez, Amanda Farias, Mercedes Narcisse, Sandy Nurse, Shekar Krishnan, Tiffany Caban, Lynn Schulman, Lincoln Restler, Shahana Hanif, Selvena Brooks-Powers

This bill would require the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to post on the housing portal any previously occupied affordable housing unit available for rent. In comments previously submitted to the Council on its oversight hearing from April 2025 on Housing Connect, REBNY noted the significant deficiencies within the existing housing lottery process for new construction. These issues are exacerbated during the re-rental process for vacant affordable units in which problems such as a lengthy marketing process and the need to sort through thousands of applicants per unit must now occur for a single unit.

Unfortunately, Intro 427 does not address any of the underlying challenges within Housing Connect. Instead, this proposal would override an agency waiver process that has permitted owners and marketing agents to find and qualify applicants for affordable units outside of the Housing Connect system By doing so, this legislation would make it harder to lease affordable units and inhibit innovation by legislating the particular steps within the lottery process itself, which has led to the current structural problems with Housing Connect in the first place. We urge the Council to instead work with HPD, marketing agents, and the industry to address the problems with Housing Connect to ensure affordable housing reaches New Yorkers who need it.

Thank you for your consideration of these points.