New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development has launched a $1 billion initiative to preserve and upgrade the city’s existing stock of more than 30,000 supportive housing units — rental apartments that provide services to tenants at risk of homelessness and other challenges.

Program Structure

The Supportive Preservation Program will target only existing supportive housing, offering financial assistance, residential real estate tax exemptions, below-market loans, and modifications to existing HPD loans to encourage conventional lenders to participate, according to The Real Deal. The program addresses a critical need: many of the city’s supportive housing buildings were financed 20 to 40 years ago through federal, state, and local programs combining subsidies for low-income housing and single-room occupancy units. Those same buildings now require significant repairs and infrastructure upgrades.

Patrick Love, Deputy Commissioner of Development at HPD, said the new term sheet “will hopefully touch supportive housing developments across the entirety of the city” and address aging properties the city financed decades ago.

On-the-Ground Impact

Rachel Levine, executive director of Nazareth Housing, said the program would address critical structural issues at the Park Avenue Thorpe building in the Bronx’s Belmont neighborhood, where HPD announced its plans. Repairs needed include the facade, windows, lintels, a new roof, and a new boiler and heating system. “It’s really the structural issues that keep me up at night,” Levine said. “Every time it rains, every time the weather changes, I’m a little anxious about what my boiler is going to do to me.” Upgrading to more energy-efficient infrastructure would provide budget stability, allowing organizations to add maintenance staff and build emergency reserves.

Policy Context

The initiative aligns with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s housing plan, which set a goal of building 200,000 new affordable homes and preserving 200,000 more over the coming decade. HPD Commissioner Dina Levy called the program a continuation of New York City’s leadership in the supportive housing movement, which took hold in the 1980s and has been a cornerstone of the city’s approach to combating homelessness. The program launch comes at a time when rising rents and shrinking affordable housing supply have intensified pressure on city officials to preserve existing units rather than rely solely on new construction.

Housing advocates have praised the program as a necessary step to prevent the loss of affordable units in a city where the gap between market rents and stabilized rents continues to widen, putting sustained pressure on low-income residents.