NYSAFAH Statement on Housing Court Fast Track

The New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH) released the following statement in response to the Mamdani administration’s announcement of a new fast track to expedite the most critical Housing Court cases:

“NYSAFAH supports comprehensive efforts to make Housing Court more efficient to ensure that serious building violations are addressed and cleared as quickly as possible. But Housing Court also needs reform to speed up non-rent related eviction hearings. In addition, HPD and DOB need a complete working plan to clear other class violations that are impacting landlords even as they expediently address them.

“New York’s Housing Court system operates at an enormous scale – the largest of its type in the nation – averaging about 350,000 filings annually for the past 20 years. A system operating at that level, for that long, is not suffering from a narrow, fixable glitch – it is structurally broken. Creating a specialized housing part for a small subset of buildings, as announced today, will have a limited impact.

“NYSAFAH members work every day to provide tenants with safe, quality homes. Affordable housing operators are managing increasingly complex buildings while navigating rising operating costs, staffing challenges, regulatory requirements, and significant financial pressures – including, for some, the impending October rent freeze. There must be a faster and more efficient approach to clearing low level violations, increased access to rental assistance, and stronger coordination among landlords, tenants, and government to resolve rental arrears.

“New York is facing an affordable housing development and preservation crisis, and the best outcomes stem from collaboration. Making Housing Court faster for all types of hearings can help protect homes and resources for tenants, housing providers, and government alike.

“NYSAFAH looks forward to working with the administration, the courts and our tenant partners on solutions that truly address the problems from all sides to produce better outcomes for all New Yorkers.”

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