Eric Adams' Plan To Create 25,000 Supportive Housing Units Is Doable, But Hurdles Lie Ahead, Say Experts

At a news conference Monday, Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee for mayor, unveiled a plan that would rehabilitate and convert 25,000 derelict hotel rooms into permanent supportive and affordable housing, an initiative he said will help decrease the homeless population that boomed under the de Blasio administration

Supportive housing advocates and elected officials hailed the proposal as another step towards expanding the housing stock for the city's most vulnerable, offering them amenities intended to stabilize their well-being. The plan would also fill a need for a reeling hotel industry whose supply of room outnumbers demand, particularly during the pandemic.

Adams called the plan a "once-in-generation opportunity," that can help "get New Yorkers off the street and take pressure off our shelters and affordable housing stock."

Some of the funding to carry out the proposal would come from the state Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity Act, which has $100 million in capital money earmarked for prospective supportive housing nonprofits. In a press release, the Adams campaign emphasized conversions can be activated "quickly." Some conversions can be green-lit within Adams' first 100 days in office, according to the campaign.

But while Adams, who has vowed to cut the city's red tape, is pushing for a speedy process in repurposing the hotel units—which represent 20% of the industry's vacancy rate, according to Hotel Association of New York estimates—housing experts say the plan would face a set of obstacles that can drag the process out. They range from changes to zoning laws at hotel properties to revising the wonky New York City building code, both of which can take time to carry out, not to mention Albany's involvement.

"You just can't railroad it through," said Larry Wood, director of organizing for Goddard Riverside Community Center, a social services nonprofit.

The city's detailed building codes require units to comply with numerous regulations, including having sufficient natural light and air for a resident to live permanently. Revisions to the building code, according to a former high-ranking official from the city's Department of Buildings, require the New York City Council to pass amendments.

"You can't live in a place that doesn't have natural light. You're just living in a box," the former official, who asked to remain anonymous so they could speak freely on Adams' proposal, said. "The building code could be changed and can be changed by the City Council, but that doesn't alleviate the requirement to comply with the housing maintenance code in the multiple dwelling laws."

The multiple dwelling laws, which mandate the size of apartment units that include bathrooms and kitchens, are drafted by the State Legislature. Among the provisions are the construction of kitchens and bathrooms, contrasting with single-room occupancy units that can only provide a communal bathroom and kitchen.

The city can't circumvent the state's multiple dwelling law—unless the legislature makes changes—which means any nonprofit that seeks to purchase a hotel is required to carve out adequate space for a kitchen. Some of those hotels can be transformed since several were initially built as residential apartment buildings.

Still, even if a nonprofit were to identify a property ready for conversion, the early stages can take at least a year, according to Wood.

"If the buildings require modifications and some of those modifications are actually [a] change in a code, then that's a longer process, but a process worth [having]," Wood said. "I want to commend Eric Adams with this idea that we need to do this and to make it happen as quickly as possible, whatever that means."

But, regarding changes to building codes, Wood said, "You can't just railroad it through."

Sam Stein, a housing analyst with the Community Service Society, supports Adams' plan but questioned how exactly a future Adams administration could expeditiously change zoning designations. Under the current laws, hotels in manufacturing districts that are converted to housing must be changed to a residential zone. And those changes would undergo a public review process that could last take six months to a year.

While nonprofits can file for a waiver through the city's Board of Standards and Appeals to update the zoning designation without public review, Wood said those waivers can be subject to litigation from NIMBY groups.

An advisor for the Adams campaign told Gothamist/WNYC that he is not looking for sweeping changes to the building code, which would be required to go through the New York City Council. The regulations, the advisor said, would likely be interpreted differently by the city Law Department. As mayor, Adams has the power to appoint a Corporation Counsel.

Even with some likely hurdles, Laura Mascuch, executive director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York, viewed the initiative worth pursuing since it will build upon existing programs intended to increase the supportive housing stock.

"I think that it is one tool at our disposal," Mascuch said of Adams' proposal.

Concerns over the speed in converting hotel units were already raised during the early months of the campaign when mayoral candidates, including Adams, unveiled similar hotel conversion plans using the same strategy. This prompted Basha Gerhards, the vice president of policy for the Real Estate Board of New York, to call the proposals "oversimplified."

“They may not have an understanding of all the layers of regulation and what that is going to take to create livable, habitable dwellings,” Gerhards said in April this year.