“In some cases, advocates say, home flippers use predatory practices, harass homeowners, and lowball vulnerable residents in order to maximize profits.” citylimits.org/one-block-fi... By @citylimitsnews.bsky.social’s @patrickspauster.com

“In nobody’s mind are hotels the best solution to this, but if the city does not have enough appropriate shelter capacity, it has a legal and moral obligation to make sure that people have a place to stay,” CFTH Exec. Dir. Dave Giffen said to @patrickspauster.com for @citylimitsnews.bsky.social.

250 shelter beds lost from Bellevue shelter’s closure will be replaced in Brooklyn hotels, I report in @citylimitsnews.bsky.social this morning. Hotel conversions are no ideal solution and local community boards quibble with the process-but the city says they need the capacity. l1nq.com/2rn503u

A new fight related to Good Cause is brewing: what does “demolish“ mean? The law lets a landlord evict a tenant by citing intent to demolish, but it’s an open question of whether an apartment renovation counts, or if the whole building must come down. www.thecity.nyc/2026/05/13/g...

Mayor says that the executive budget accounts for CityFHEPS program (and some expected savings) as it exists today and DOES NOT include a potential expansion tied up in court. "Conversations continue" with the council around expansion, he says.

Knocked on many doors and pored over at many documents to figure out who exactly is getting their homes flipped and who is flipping them? My @citylimitsnews.bsky.social story on the trend that is making homeownership feel even more out of reach & is prevalent in Black neighborhoods buff.ly/WNtxt93

Knocked on many doors and pored over at many documents to figure out who exactly is getting their homes flipped and who is flipping them? My @citylimitsnews.bsky.social story on the trend that is making homeownership feel even more out of reach & is prevalent in Black neighborhoods buff.ly/WNtxt93

What happened at last night's Rent Guidelines Board meeting? Will tenants in rent stabilized apartments get that rent freeze Mayor Mamdani promised? Housing reporter @patrickspauster.com spoke to @pix11.bsky.social's Politics Daily about the latest: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAV1...

The city will close another Midtown homeless facility, Mainchance Drop-in, in June. Mainchance fought off closure in court 2 years ago under Mayor Adams. This time, DHS alleges the drop-in breached their contract by turning people away. The center has vowed to fight again. buff.ly/vJPe48D

The future of NYCHA is complicated and contentious. You'll find many of those nuanced views represented in this thoughtful @citylimitsnews.bsky.social story from @tareqsaghie.bsky.social citylimits.org/while-many-n...

First in @citylimitsnews.bsky.social: The mayor will announce a $2.4 B commitment to add heat pumps to 20k NYCHA apartments, 10k gas stoves, and 45k with efficient lighting and plumbing. But there’s $1.2B of funding yet to be identified amid budget uncertainty->

In NYC, homeless families have to go through a screening process to confirm they are indeed homeless in order to be eligible for housing services. A new @council.nyc.gov bill looks to make that process faster and easier, @patrickspauster.com reports: citylimits.org/nyc-families...

Should families have to prove they are homeless in order to access services? A new Council bill would make DHS take them at their word. In @citylimitsnews.bsky.social I dive into why city "fraud investigators" assess a family's eligibility for shelter-and whether it's necessary. buff.ly/RiL7QJq

We are sooooo back

And here's what the admin themselves counts as their accomplishments on housing, from a press release today:

The Mamdani admin says it's 'both, and': they are standing w/ tenants against "bad landlords" and working with real estate to build more housing. I asked DM for housing and planning Bozorg about the first 100 days of housing policy @citylimitsnews.bsky.social buff.ly/q0BYwh8

"I didn't know about it,"-Sen. maj. leader in response to @citylimitsnews.bsky.social & @hellgatenyc.com reporting on Sepulveda's law practice no shows & judge spat. "I would hope that he takes everything seriously but I have no complaints as it relates to his role on the judiciary"

“I’d like to know why you are not here,” the judge said over the phone. “It is not appropriate to not appear on multiple occasions.” Sepúlveda replied that he was “not in New York State right now.” citylimits.org/ny-state-sen...

More good details about Sen. Sepúlvedas legal failings from @sammellins.bsky.social @nysfocus.com—which extend beyond the no-shows in housing court I covered—plus he made at least $345,000 on his (sometimes shoddy) legal services since 2017

“I reject the premise that us going after bad landlords is the same thing as not working with the real estate industry. They are two different things,” Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg told @patrickspauster.com, as the Mamdani administration marks its first 100 days. citylimits.org/100-days-in-...

State Sen. Luis Sepúlveda-who chairs the NY Sen. judiciary committee-has no-showed court appearances in 4/5 recent eviction defense cases he's argued, frustrating judges and risking his client's eviction. My scoop in @citylimitsnews.bsky.social buff.ly/m4dgx37

The mayor is doing a Reddit AMA for tenants this afternoon at 1:45. Comments and questions are already pouring in. www.reddit.com/r/nyc/s/nYmg...

March 2026 w Jordan ward Snail mail Baby keem DERBY RAYE Damien Dempsey open.spotify.com/playlist/5Dn... 🍏 music.apple.com/us/playlist/...

Ever called 311 because you didn't have heat? Did your complaint go nowhere? I traced what actually happens to 311 complaints about heat and hot water issues, which are at all time high in NYC. Only a small fraction get an inspection or result in a violation.

For lack of heat, it doesn’t just feel like tenants’ complaints are going unanswered; in some cases, they actually are. My @citylimitsnews.bsky.social investigation on how a duplicate-tagging system shortchanges some tenants to maximize efficiency + what the mayor might do about it buff.ly/gpAKiTx

“their toddler daughter lost weight during their first month’s stay at a shelter hotel in Queens. “Our main concern was her nutrition—that she would grow and be strong,”” Important investigation into food at NYC shelters that isn’t nutritious enough for many shelter residents.

First look at this years income and expense data from the Rent Guidelines Board, which will shape debate on the “rent freeze” the mayor has called for

My intuition is this is really about buying more time for negotiations on the expensive expansion on a deadline, not the substance of the appeal. Compounding the awkwardness, Mamdani has to rely on arguments made by his predecessor in a case he said he'd drop.

The Mamdani admin was forced to appeal in the CityFHEPS case after they were unable to strike a deal on an expensive program expansion, the latest development in a long fight. in @citylimitsnews.bsky.social both sides say they expect negotiations on a compromise to continue. buff.ly/ut7mylq

It’s not great yall "Even before the recent cold spell, more than a million households across New York were two months or more behind on their energy bills, totaling $1.84 billion in debt, more than double what was owed before the pandemic, state lawmakers said in December. "

In @citylimitsnews.bsky.social: Joseph Jones says his landlord is retaliating against tenants with vouchers who spoke up about the prohibitively high cost of amenities in his building. After he did, they removed all the furniture from the lobby-the one place they could hang for free buff.ly/PBrdPGs

Crazy graph in today's piece on wild gas bills in NYC this winter in @citylimitsnews.bsky.social $340 average gas bill in February! buff.ly/tt69t1m

While high prices lock some New York City affordable housing tenants out of their luxury building’s amenities—like game rooms, gyms, co-working spaces, and lounges—some of their market-rate neighbors are getting the perks for free, @patrickspauster.com found: citylimits.org/while-afford...

Some market tenants in mixed-income buildings are getting amenity fees waived while lottery & voucher tenants say they are priced prohibitively high. My follow up on how amenity fees create income-segregated spaces, a new sort of "poor door" in @citylimitsnews.bsky.social buff.ly/PBrdPGs

Hit the streets & talked to homeless NYrs & advocates about the Mamdani admin's approach to homeless encampments, which it says centers outreach. Much skepticism remains--it's not outreach but having the right housing placement that makes a difference. w/@jeanmarieevelly.bsky.social buff.ly/4rMR3KI

The mayor spoke to tenants in the Bronx this week at the latest rental ripoff hearing. He made sure to strike a different tone w/ NYCHA residents who had been critical of the hearings' focus on private landlords. That and more housing news from the week @citylimitsnews.bsky.social buff.ly/TMXSXcJ

Mamdani wants to build Mitchell-Lama style aff hsg at Sunnyside. But the city's existing Mitchell-Lamas are in tough shape, a new report finds. Exactly how its governed is fraught, and tenants often pay the price of poor conditions. In @citylimitsnews.bsky.social buff.ly/PYbJ5An

Housing leaders are previewing city housing plan @thenyhc.bsky.social. It has 4 pillars: preservation, production, NYCHA, and tenant protection. On the last, HPD boss Dina Levy says small group of bad LL has been torturing tenants “it’s time we put professional slumlords out of business.”

NEW: the state Housing Access Voucher Program launched in NYC this week. But NYC housing is so expensive that the $32.5M from the pilot program will fund just ~1,000 vouchers. Housers want far more. Here's how you can apply if you're in shelter @citylimits.news.bsky.social -> buff.ly/rF72wPE

Morning read: Had a thoughtful convo with outgoing commish Molly Park abt making the Dept of Social Services into a housing agency, not just a safety net. Plus, her thoughts on new encampment sweeps and a path forward on CityFHEPS. @citylimitsnews.bsky.social 3 interesting things🧵 buff.ly/SA9xzDk

bad news for new yorkers with housing vouchers

Sunnyside yards back from the dead: “That plan was done in a kind of pre-abundance moment. I think the politics around new housing has shifted a lot in the last few years,” said Vishaan Chakrabarti. “The need has become even more acute.” @CityLimitsNews.bsky.social citylimits.org/the-future-o...

The first rental ripoff hearing in BK felt less like a hearing and more like a resource fair Tenants had 1on1s with city officials, agencies tabled, & tenants decried bad landlords. Some tenants from NYCHA felt left out My dispatch @CityLimitsNews w/ Adi Talwar 📸 citylimits.org/tenants-decr...

We have Atlantic Yards at home

I’m heading to Downtown Brooklyn to cover the first ever Rental Ripoffs hearing for @citylimitsnews.bsky.social . If you’re a tenant looking to talk about your housing, find me there! Or my DMs are open

Ultra-rich buyers are consolidating New York townhouse apartments into giant single-family homes. Some are buying two, even three adjacent townhomes to build a franken-house. Step inside a Manhattan mega-mansion, the latest status symbol in this second Gilded Age: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Under the radar but important story: NYC is finally making progress on a promise to expand the number of supportive housing beds available to homeless people leaving jail--though its still behind what was promised in the agreement to close Rikers

Good piece on this fairly modest development that will provide 65 senior care units. It’s not clear why anyone who lives in New York City would oppose this other than due to some deep hatred of other people. citylimits.org/nycs-housing...

NEW: housing-averse CM Vickie Paladino voted to advance this project in Bayside-which she does not otherwise support-under threat of override from the city's new affordable housing appeals board. 1st project demonstrating power of last fall's housing ballot measures. Story TK ⤵️

Between storms, NYC 311 updated their website warming center and homeless outreach pages to direct people to call 911 (not 311) to report someone in a medical emergency. See the site on Feb 2nd (also a Code Blue) via the wayback machine and the site today.