Blueprint for the Future of Fair Housing

Earlier this month, the de Blasio administration released the Where We Live NYC Draft Plan for public review, the City’s comprehensive plan to promote fair housing opportunities for all New Yorkers.

The Where We Live NYC Draft Plan outlines key goals and strategies to address New York City’s fair housing challenges and lays out an action plan for the next five years, including:

• Expanding resources to combat persistent housing discrimination;
• Supporting housing development throughout the city and region;
• Preserving affordable housing and preventing displacement of long-standing residents;
• Empowering New Yorkers who use housing vouchers with more choice;
• Creating more independent and integrated living options for people with disabilities; and
• Making equitable investments and changing policies to support neighborhoods suffering from historic disinvestment.

The draft plan includes goals and strategies to address challenges that NYCHA and Section 8 residents face in gaining access to housing and opportunity.

The City is also launching the Fair Housing Litigation Unit to bring cases against owners and brokers who discriminate based on race, disability, and source of income. This unit will be comprised of researchers, lawyers, and market testers who will go into the community as “secret shoppers” and identify discriminatory practices.

“The issues that contribute to housing discrimination and segregation are systemic and impact the lives of countless New Yorkers,” said NYCHA Chair and CEO Gregory Russ. “To tackle them, we need to enlist more community partners; continue leveraging the impact of NYCHA programs like PACT and REES; and expand funding to strengthen enforcement of NYC’s Fair Housing laws that protect the rights of many low- and moderate-income New Yorkers.”

Visit the Where We Live NYC website to read the plan and provide feedback to shape the final report.

To provide a formal, on-the-record comment on the draft:

• Provide testimony at a hearing scheduled to take place February 6, 2020, from 5:30 p.m.  to 7:00 p.m. in the NYC City Planning Commission Hearing Room, Lower Concourse, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.
• Summit written comments in a Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF file to WhereWeLiveNYC@hpd.nyc.gov no later than close of business March 7, 2020. Written comments can also be mailed to ATTN: Where We Live NYC, NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, 100 Gold Street, 9X Area, New York, New York 10038.

The City expects to finalize the Where We Live NYC plan after it reviews the feedback that is received and makes edits to the draft.