The Adams administration, particularly Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz and Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Adolfo Carrión, have come up with a stellar housing plan. They’re investing a record $32 billion into our affordable and public housing supply. They’re cutting red tape all over the place, like deleting the demeaning Section 8 absent parent form and deep-sixing the practice of re-verifying every single affordable housing applicant’s income. And they’ve proposed a long overdue citywide zoning text amendment to prioritize affordable housing over parking.

But Commissioner Carrión is doing it with one arm tied behind his back.

Over time, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has taken an aggressive role in the affairs of other agencies, including those that deal with housing. OMB has been re-underwriting HPD deals, forcing the agency to hire at the minimum salary for a given civil service title, and making the commissioner ask for specific permission to give even stellar employees a raise.

When the pandemic kicked off, the city entered a financial twilight zone. Would the ‘70s return? Would it need (and not receive) a bailout? This kind of aggressive oversight by OMB could be justified during a fiscal crisis.

But that was then, and this is now: New York City is back in the black. The mayor and the council have shaken hands on a record budget, more than 50 percent larger than that of a decade ago, with an unprecedented $32 billion dollar commitment for affordable and public housing.

Those funds are obviously badly needed in this inflationary environment. What’s less needed is OMB’s continued, unnecessary oversight that is throttling our affordable housing production. The affordable housing industry is ready to build; we have the construction crews standing by, chomping at the bit to break ground. But OMB stands in the way.

First, there is the staffing issue. HPD’s development division has more than a 20% vacancy rate, and the legal division that closes deals has only half the attorneys they should. No wonder the pipeline is broken. But OMB is still requiring that HPD hire at the minimum salary. For attorneys, that’s barely over $60,000 a year.

Second, OMB is double-checking HPD’s math by re-underwriting deals. It is certainly important for the city to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars, but HPD’s job is to procure housing and enforce codes—OMB should not be redoing their work. It is just plain inefficient.

This overreach is done in the name of fiduciary duty, but costs the city more money in the long term. From a straightforward real estate perspective, the longer it takes to close, the more the developer spends on site control—and the more housing costs. When OMB duplicates HPD’s work, the clock is ticking, and money is being flushed down the toilet.

Finally, building affordable housing is either a real job or it’s not. A good mission can help you sleep at night, but it’s not going to pay the rent or put food on the table. OMB needs to let HPD manage its own expense budget. When you don’t pay people enough, you can’t get the talent you need, and you lose the capacity to effectively negotiate, oversee, and execute procurement. This means that the affordable housing pipeline slows or stops, and the most vulnerable New Yorkers are the ones who suffer.

James Lloyd is director of policy at the New York State Association for Affordable Housing.

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