On a cold winter morning, residents in an old apartment building in New York City are waking up to various issues. Some found that the heating had been off all night, others noticed water seeping through living room walls, and some even heard rats rummaging through the kitchen. Despite multiple complaints to the landlord, the problems persist. The residents are left shaking their heads in frustration. Little do they realize that a simple phone call could resolve all these issues. On the other end of the line is the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).
In major cities across the United States, it is rare to find a municipal agency like HPD that combines housing safety regulation and affordable housing development. For many Chinese families striving in New York, HPD may not be a familiar government agency, but whether you are renting or applying for affordable housing, HPD’s responsibilities are closely related.
Speaking of the department’s mission, HPD News Secretary Matt Rauschenbach stated to the media, “HPD’s mission is to ensure that every New Yorker has a safe, healthy, and affordable place to live. Whether responding to residents’ complaints about living conditions, conducting crucial research to better understand the city’s housing market, providing rental assistance to help residents stay put, or promoting new housing construction and preserving existing housing, HPD remains at the forefront, supporting citizens and serving communities.”
As one of New York City’s housing management departments, HPD also has three core responsibilities:
First, ensuring existing residences meet basic safety and health standards;
Second, significantly advancing the scale and quantity of affordable housing development;
Third, maintaining community diversity and preventing vulnerable populations from being forced to leave the city due to housing price pressures.
In practical operation, HPD focuses directly on residents’ actual living conditions, such as room temperature, hot water availability, leaks, pests, timely repairs by landlords, and other everyday life issues. By enforcing the Housing Maintenance Code, HPD carries out inspections, enforcement, and violation handling to achieve its first mission. Additionally, through loans, subsidies, and policy guidance, HPD collaborates with developers, non-profits, and financial institutions to continuously increase the affordable housing system’s scale and advance its second and third missions.
In 1975, New York City faced a severe financial crisis, with the government on the brink of bankruptcy and public services nearly stagnant. The real estate market was in a prolonged downturn, with landlords abandoning buildings in mass exodus, incidents of arson for insurance claims, communities gradually becoming abandoned and impoverished. To prevent large-scale neighborhood collapse, the city government integrated urban housing management and development functions in 1978 to establish HPD, ensuring basic residential safety for citizens.
From accepting distressed and abandoned buildings for restoration to planning, constructing, and repurposing existing structures to increase the quantity of affordable housing, HPD’s role as the “defender of citizens’ housing rights” is becoming increasingly comprehensive.
For residents renting properties, understanding HPD’s housing maintenance and enforcement functions is crucial. Any basic living conditions regulated by the Housing Maintenance Code fall within HPD’s jurisdiction. If your rented property experiences issues such as insufficient heating in winter, abnormal hot water supply year-round, leaks, mold, structural water seepage, pests, or landlords failing to make necessary repairs, you can directly call 311 to file complaints. HPD will dispatch inspectors to check the reported addresses. If violations are confirmed, HPD will issue notices requiring landlords to complete repairs within legal deadlines. If landlords fail to comply, the city government will undertake the repairs and seek reimbursement from landlords according to the law.
Residents can also enter addresses into HPD’s online system to check for unresolved violations, litigations, or property registration information, serving as an essential reference before renting or purchasing a property.
However, for the Chinese community, especially new immigrants, reporting landlords is not always easy despite the 311 hotline offering Cantonese and Mandarin services. Language barriers, fear of retaliation, lack of understanding or trust in government functions often lead many tenants to suffer in silence during cold nights. Some Chinese tenants have shared stories of enduring inadequate indoor temperatures for days in fear of conflict with landlords, only speaking up when their children repeatedly fell ill.
According to city regulations, landlords must not retaliate against tenants for complaints, including raising rents, pressuring tenants to relocate, changing locks, or cutting off utilities, as these actions could constitute new violations. The city government will assist residents throughout the reporting process and follow-up to ensure they can truly live securely.
Currently, the primary channel for applying for affordable housing in the city is the NYC Housing Connect, jointly led by HPD and the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC). The platform centrally releases information on affordable rental housing in the five boroughs of New York, along with a few affordable homeownership projects.
It is important to note that the “affordable housing” managed by HPD does not include applications for public housing or housing vouchers, as those fall under the purview of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).
The basic application process includes creating an account, establishing a household profile, providing information on family size, income, and identity, screening eligible options, searching by borough, income bracket (AMI percentage), and apartment type, submitting applications online or by mail, participating in a lottery sorting and eligibility review, submitting tax records, pay stubs, and bank statements upon lottery selection, attending interviews, verification, and signing the lease for occupation.
During the application process, many applicants may stumble due to details in documents, such as incomplete income proofs, discrepancies between tax data and actual income, disputes over household population count, or failure to submit required information within deadlines, leading to application cancellations.
Many applicants mistakenly believe that failing an application means no further chances. However, each Housing Connect project uses a lottery system, allowing applicants to apply for other projects even if one fails.
Moreover, the city government and community organizations caution against relying on so-called “processing queue-jumping” or “guaranteed lottery selection” paid services, emphasizing that all qualified applications must go through official platforms, without shortcuts or special treatment.
Under the New York City government, there are four functional departments related to housing management, which may confuse many regarding their relationships and functions. Besides HPD and NYCHA introduced earlier, there are the Department of Buildings (DOB) and the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC). Each department has specific responsibilities relevant to citizens:
For Chinese people, a house symbolizes “home.” The living conditions of rented housing determine the current quality of life, while the ability to apply for affordable housing represents hope for the future. In this city of high property values, understanding HPD’s functions and knowing your rights means possessing the most basic and realistic “residential capability” in New York.
For instance, the cooperative housing project at 170 West 22nd Street in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, developed in collaboration by Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) and HPD through the Affordable Neighborhood Cooperative Program (ANCP), has undergone financing and restoration to become a cooperative apartment. The housing lottery is now open, providing a rare housing opportunity for medium-income families and individuals.
Through the Housing Connect lottery, these 21 apartments cater to households with total annual incomes ranging from $103,820 to $192,500. Apartment types include studios, one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms, priced between $385,865 and $451,600. For more detailed information, including eligibility requirements and application instructions, visit the NYC Housing Connect website. Applicants must submit relevant documents by January 28, 2026.
Additionally, HPD recently designated the non-profit organization IMPACCT Brooklyn through New York City’s innovative “Supportive Housing Request for Proposals” mechanism to develop at least 70 affordable housing units on a city-owned land at 913 Kent Avenue in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, with approximately 60% designated as supportive housing units.
HPD has provided thousands of supportive housing units for the city’s most vulnerable populations, completing 1,962 units in the 2025 fiscal year alone. These residences are protected under rent stabilization regulations and are owned and operated by experienced community organizations, ensuring high-quality property management. Research shows that supportive housing can improve residents’ health outcomes and reduce the demand for costly shelters, hospitals, and emergency services, saving public expenditures.
In the next phase, HPD will collaborate with IMPACCT Brooklyn to finalize site planning, draft and submit a comprehensive financing plan, and present concrete service plans for supportive housing target groups for HPD’s review. Subsequently, the development team alongside HPD and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will jointly advance the land use approval process, where community residents can provide input to further enhance project planning.
New York City Residents’ Hotline: 311
HPD Website: https://www.nyc.gov/site/hpd/index.page
NYC Housing Connect Website: https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/
The above information showcases the importance of HPD in ensuring safe, affordable housing for all New Yorkers, illustrating the significant impact it has on residents’ lives and the community as a whole, promoting equitable access to quality housing.