The City Council’s budget response calls for additional dollars for new construction and preservation, to address maintenance issues at NYCHA and to staff up the city agencies that oversee housing.

NYC Council members unveiling their budget response on Wednesday. (Credit John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit)

The NYC Council is pushing for billions of additional dollars in the city’s next budget deal—including extra funds for residential construction and building preservation, to address maintenance at NYCHA and to staff up the city agencies that oversee housing.

In their response to Mayor Eric Adams’ $114.5 billion preliminary budget proposal, Council members said they’ve identified $6.3 billion in “available resources” that the mayor’s plan missed, including from higher-than-expected tax revenue and underspending in the current budget.

The lawmakers want to use $4.4 billion of that “to close budget gaps and invest in services that protect and uplift working people,” Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan said at a press briefing last week. “We’re also withholding about $1.9 billion in spending for now as we continue to assess the outcome of the state budget and prepare for any additional challenges that may come our way from Washington.”

Challenges from Washington are already here: on Tuesday, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration cancelled $1.88 million in grants for New York City to help cover the cost of emergency homeless shelters for migrants. That’s on top of $80 million in similar funds the federal government took back in February, part of the president’s ongoing immigration crackdown.

While Mayor Adams says his staff is working to get that money returned, more funding losses are likely in store for fiscal year 2026—which starts July 1—as President Donald Trump continues to slash federal spending.

“We’re totally looking at the unknown right now,” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams told reporters last week, saying their expanded budget proposal is an effort to “develop this Trump-proof city.”

“We hope that the mayor will put this budget first, the concerns of New Yorkers first,” Speaker Adams added, referencing the cozy relationship Mayor Adams has struck in recent months with the Trump administration—which was successful in getting the corruption charges against the mayor dropped last week.

When it comes to housing, the Council is pushing for $114.5 million in additional expense funds and $1.1 billion of capital funds to cover a wide range of needs, including both new construction and preservation of existing apartments.

It includes an extra $600 million to expand and revamp the Third Party Transfer program—which allows the city to seize properties from neglectful landlords who fail to maintain them or pay taxes, and transfer them to new ownership—and an added $25 million in baselined funding to fix administrative delays with CityFHEPS, the city’s rental assistance program.

Funds would also go to addressing staff shortages at the agencies that oversee housing production and maintenance, including the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD), which had 383 staff vacancies as of March 25. The Department of Buildings had 216 open posts.

At a budget hearing late last month, HPD Deputy Commissioner Kim Darga said the agency has “made a lot of progress on staffing” in recent years.

“The vacancy rate there has dropped a lot,” she said. “We also supplemented those kind of staff resources with hiring temps to help us get through some of the backlog that we saw when we lost a lot of staff during the pandemic.”

Still, the agency has a 14 percent staff vacancy rate, significantly higher than the citywide rate of 5 percent. Inadequate personnel will hamper the city’s efforts to build new apartments during a critical housing shortage, lawmakers said, and undermine the mayor’s City of Yes reforms, through which the Council previously negotiated $5 billion for housing programs and infrastructure upgrades.

That funding was supposed to include 200 new staff positions between HPD and DOB, according to City Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, who chairs the Housing and Buildings Committee. But the mayor’s preliminary budget only included funding for 132 of those roles, she told City Limits in an interview last week.

“So that’s 70 lines that we are short, and that’s only one example of commitments that were made through City of Yes that we’re not seeing materialized in the preliminary budget,” she said.

One of Sanchez’s budget priorities is to expand preservation efforts, pointing to a steep recent rise in the number of building code violations across the city’s aging buildings.

“The housing stock in New York City is falling apart,” Sanchez said. She noted a 130 percent increase in the amount of units getting emergency repair funds—when HPD intervenes to make fixes directly in deteriorating properties, and charges the landlord after the fact.

“It could be twice as expensive for HPD to do a job as compared to the landlord repairing their own properties,” Sanchez said. “So we see things going in the wrong direction, and we want to push the administration on committing to preservation work.”

Housing advocates say they’re also concerned about future funding. In its analysis of the city’s capital budget plan through 2035, the New York Housing Conference, a policy and advocacy nonprofit, pointed to stark drop-off in funding to HPD and NYCHA, from $4.3 billion next fiscal year to $2.4 billion in fiscal year 2027. That means the city will lose its momentum after two years of boosted housing production.

Credit: New York Housing Conference’s budget testimony.

“The bottom line is, as a city, we need to be baselining $4 billion a year in housing capital, or production will drop,” said Rachel Fee, the group’s executive director, in an interview with City Limits. She pointed to rising construction costs and interest rates, which are “putting a lot of pressure on the capital plan.”

“The thing about housing development is, you know, it doesn’t happen overnight. You need that out-year money for developers to take risks, to acquire sites,” Fee added.

Under the capital plan, funding for NYCHA also drops off dramatically starting in fiscal year 2027 (which by the calendar year starts in July 2026). That includes repair money for both Section 9 developments and those converted to Section 8 under the Preservation Trust and Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) programs.

“Without a steady capital allocation, NYCHA cannot reasonably plan a pipeline for either preservation strategy,” the Housing Conference said its budget testimony submitted to the Council.

In their budget response, Council members have asked for an extra $500 million a year for NYCHA for the next four years, funds that will go to “support repairs and maintenance,” according Speaker Adams, as well as rehabbing empty public housing apartments—of which there were more than 5,700 in February—for new tenants.

“The administration must also prioritize fixing and filling vacant units to get them online with the urgency required in a housing shortage,” Adams said.

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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The St. Paul City Council will host two public hearings Wednesday on an effort to exempt rent control for residential buildings constructed after 2004 and a separate initiative to install new tenant protections, including notification requirements after affordable housing has been sold.

Final council votes are not likely until May.

Hours before those discussions take place, a new council member will be sworn in Wednesday morning. Mayor Melvin Carter is appointing Matt Privratsky, a clean energy advocate and former council legislative aide, to fill the vacant Ward 4 seat on an interim basis through the Aug. 12 election.

Here’s an overview of what’s on the table:

Rent control

In 2021, St. Paul voters approved one of the stiffest rent control ordinances in the country, capping annual residential rent increases at 3%. Landlords have said that number falls far below inflation, property taxes, insurance and maintenance expenses elevated by rising construction costs.

Given those expenses, many residential units qualify for temporary exemptions from the rent caps, making getting around rent control when inflation is high mostly a question of filing the correct paperwork, to the frustration of those on all sides of the issue.

Developers have complained that the lending market has been unforgiving, undermining efforts to finance new housing construction, which has dwindled in the capital city. Even some advocates for more affordable housing and greater density, like the leaders of Sustain St. Paul, say it’s time to at least partially roll back rent control, provided it’s coupled with new tenant protections.

In response, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter proposed last August eliminating the rent cap for buildings that were issued their first certificate of occupancy after Dec. 31, 2004. Council President Rebecca Noecker, Council Member Anika Bowie and Council Member Saura Jost have sponsored an amendment to do that.

Council Member HwaJeong Kim has said she is staunchly opposed, and said more study is needed of the benefits of rent control.

Critics say the rent control limits have already been heavily watered down. In 2022, the previous council softened the voter-approved ordinance, exempting newly-constructed units for 20 years, with a 20-year lookback period. They permanently exempted deed-restricted and federally-backed affordable housing, while allowing newly vacant units to seek rent increases of 8% plus inflation.

The changes have made as much as a third of the city exempt.

Tenant protections

Council Member Cheniqua Johnson, who chairs the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority, has said any vote to roll back rent control should be contingent upon the council fully embracing tenant protections she is sponsoring. That package has drawn a majority of the council as co-sponsors, including Kim, Noecker and Jost, while drawing concerns from Bowie that the rules may be unenforceable.

In July 2020, the previous council approved a package of wide-ranging protections aimed at limiting — but not entirely eliminating — onerous security deposits, criminal history reviews, surprise building sales and other tools used to screen or oust tenants.

The previous package also included a “just cause” requirement to force landlords to explain in writing why they had chosen not to renew a tenant’s lease. The S.A.F.E. Housing protections went into effect in March 2021, but were challenged by landlords and temporarily put on hold the next month by a federal judge who expressed open skepticism they were constitutional.

Rather than press their case in court, in June 2021 the city council voted 4-3 to rescind the package entirely.

Johnson’s newly-introduced protections do not include the “just cause” provision. Still, Bowie has expressed doubt that the new package would survive a fresh legal challenge and judicial scrutiny.

Newly-proposed tenant protections

Here’s what the newly-proposed protections call for:

• Security deposits: Security deposits would be limited to the equivalent of a single month’s rent, unless the tenant’s application might otherwise be denied because of their criminal history, credit history or rental history. In that case, a security deposit could be equivalent to two months of rent.

• Screening criteria: A landlord must make their screening criteria “readily available” to any prospective tenant. A prospective tenant could not be rejected because of a conviction for a crime that is no longer illegal in Minnesota, a petty misdemeanor, a gross misdemeanor older than three years, and most felony convictions for which the last day served was more than seven years prior.

• Criminal history: For certain crimes, such as first-degree assault, arson or murder, a landlord could look back 10 years. Screening criteria could not include an arrest or charge in an inactive case in which the prospective tenant was not convicted, participation in a diversion program, or a conviction that has been vacated or expunged. Certain federal screening rules may kick in for lifetime sex offender registrations and controlled substance crimes.

• Credit scores: Landlords would not be able to reject tenants based solely on their credit score alone, insufficient credit history or insufficient rental history, though they could use a credit report that shows a failure to pay rent or utility bills. A prospective tenant cannot withhold their credit history or rental history.

• Eviction history: Landlords would not be allowed to consider pending evictions, evictions that are more than three years old and evictions that have not resulted in an order to vacate.

• Minimum income tests: If a landlord uses a minimum income test requiring two and a half times the rent or higher, the landlord must allow an exception if the applicant can demonstrate a history of successful rent payment using a similar or lower ratio.

• Alternative assessments: A landlord applying screening criteria that is more prohibitive than any of the criminal history, rental history and credit history limits in the rules “must conduct an individualized assessment” showing why they intend to deny an application. The landlord will have to “accept and consider all supplemental evidence” provided with the application.

• Tenant notice: Landlords would have 14 days to explain in writing to a tenant which criteria they failed to meet. Any local, state or federal funding or loan requirements would trump the city’s screening rules.

• Evictions for nonpayment: Evictions for nonpayment of rent would require advance written notice to the tenant specifying the total amount due, as well as their right to seek legal help and a phone number and web address for legal and financial assistance.

• Sale of affordable housing: If affordable housing is sold, the new landlord may not terminate or fail to renew a tenant’s rental agreement without just cause, raise rent or rescreen existing tenants during a certain period of time known as the “tenant protection period” of three months without providing relocation assistance.

• Relocation assistance: Relocation assistance must be equal to three months of rent for a unit priced for a median-income family, or 7.5% of the annual area median income, adjusted for family size.

• Tenant notification: Within 30 days of the transfer of ownership, the new landlord must give written notice to each tenant in an affordable unit that the property is under new ownership and explaining whether the new landlord will require them to re-screened, whether they will be terminated without cause and whether the new landlord intends to increase rent.

• Complaints: Landlords, tenants and prospective tenants can issue a complaint to the city’s Department of Safety and Inspections, and appeal DSI determinations to the city’s legislative hearing officer within 30 days. Tenants also can appeal to the courts.

If approved by the council, the new tenant protections still require the mayor’s signature, and then take effect a year later.

The city’s Office of Financial Empowerment would oversee coordination of the new rules by creating an online portal for all landlords and tenants to view rules, resources and enforcement tools and annually publish phone numbers for relocation assistance and other “know your rights” materials.

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Late in the Minnesota Wild’s Tuesday morning practice at Xcel Energy Center, recovering star forward Kirill Kaprizov caught a pass in the corner and was immediately checked into the boards by a teammate — not an overly hard check, but the kind of normal contact that puck-carriers face in the heat of an NHL game.

Almost all of the building’s 18,000-plus seats were empty, but their star player taking a check was perhaps the best thing that Wild fans could have seen in months.

While making no promises that Kaprizov would return to the lineup for Wednesday night’s game versus San Jose, Wild coach John Hynes has made it clear that the left wing being exposed to contact in practice is another step in his long road back to the line chart.

That goes for center Joel Eriksson Ek, as well.

Kaprizov has played three games since the Christmas break and had surgery to repair a lower body injury on Jan. 31. Eriksson Ek has been out of the lineup since late February, also with a lower body injury.

“It’s the first time they’ve had (contact) in that type of environment,” Hynes said. “They have had contact and did some battling and stuff like that with each other … but that was the first time (for) kind of a five-on-five situation.”

While acknowledging that Tuesday was a positive step, Hynes stopped short of saying it was the final step until having a chance to talk with the team’s trainers.

“I would keep it vague right now because it just changes so much,” he said. “This was the next progression, for them to get into a regular practice, five-on-five drills, normal stuff, other guys out there, not in such a controlled setting. … And then it will truly come down to, I think, how they respond to this, how comfortable they feel.”

Hynes said defenseman Jake Middleton, injured in a road loss to the New York Islanders last Friday, will not return to face the Sharks because of an upper body injury.

Fourth-line work helps snap losing streak

After every Wild win, a player who had a superlative role in the victory is recognized for their hard work on the ice with a thick chain that holds a green sign with the word “HARD” emblazoned on it in red lettering.

Stars such as Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi and goalie Filip Gustavsson have been the obvious recipients of the award on many occasions, but following the overtime win over Dallas on Sunday, the team’s fourth line was acknowledged, with winger Devin Shore wearing the chain.

The trio of Shore and wingers Yakov Trenin and Justin Brazeau didn’t appear on the score sheet in the 3-2 victory, but their solid work in countering the Stars and playing key minutes was recognized on a team where every healthy body has played a role in the team staying in the playoff hunt.

“It’s always nice, but we don’t do it for the recognition, especially this time of year,” Shore said. “The individual recognition doesn’t really matter. You win or you lose or you get a point. That’s really all that matters this time of year.”

He added that the mindset of bringing intensity and a “jam” to every shift has led to the fourth line’s success. After the Wild went 0-1-2 on their three-game East Coast trip, having all four lines and all six defenders contribute versus Dallas was vital.

“No passengers. Everyone was ready to go and that’s the response you need after the week like we had,” Boldy said following the win. “I think that’s more of the team that we’re used to and expect from each other. So, for us to go out there and play that way after kind of the struggles we’ve been going through, I think speaks a lot to a group.”

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In about a month, Minnesotans who do not have a REAL ID could face extra screening and air travel delays, the Metropolitan Airports Commission says.

Beginning May 7, the REAL ID Act will be enforced nationally and the Transportation Security Administration is encouraging travelers to obtain their REAL ID or prepare for delays, according to the Airports Commission, which owns and operates Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

A sample Minnesota Real ID driver’s license. REAL ID-compliant identification requires additional documents compared to a standard driver’s license or ID card. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety)

“Now is the time for anyone age 18 years and older who plans to travel after May 7 to ensure they have an acceptable form of identification once REAL ID enforcement begins,” said TSA Minnesota Federal Security Director Marty Robinson, in a news release.

Passed in 2005, the REAL ID Act is intended to enhance security standards for states to issue driver’s licenses and ID cards that are accepted by federal agencies. Minnesota began issuing REAL IDs on Oct. 1, 2018.

The current processing time for a Minnesota REAL ID driver’s license or Minnesota enhanced driver’s license, which is also compliant with the new REAL ID Act, is about 45 days from application, according to the release.

“We want to make sure everyone can enjoy their travel plans this summer and beyond,” said Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services Director Pong Xiong in the release. “Minnesotans who want a REAL ID should allow enough time to have their card in hand before needing to board a plane.”

As of April 1, fewer than half – 40.82% – of Minnesotans had a REAL ID, according to the DVS.

How do I get one?

To apply for a REAL ID, you must know your Social Security number and provide documentation that proves your identity, date of birth, legal U.S. presence and current Minnesota residency. Most commonly, Minnesotans provide a birth certificate, bank statement and utility bill.

How much does it cost?

For a Class D REAL ID-compliant license, expect to pay $46, or $41 if you’re renewing, according to the DVS. To renew to a REAL ID-compliant identification card, those 65 and older should expect to pay $27.

Don’t want one?

If you decide not to get a REAL ID, you can still pass through airport security with your driver’s license, passport and boarding pass, according to Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services. If you do not have a passport, you can find alternative accepted documentation at http://pipr.es/kz6RGfi.

For more information on TSA airport security screening requirements, visit tsa.gov/travel.

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