Hotels to housing
Law makes converting underused bldgs. easier
Gov. Hochul signed a bill Tuesday that paves the way for underutilized hotels in the city to be converted into apartments, giving a boost to Mayor Adams, who has characterized the legislation as a critical tool for tackling New York’s housing crisis.
The bill — which Adams pushed state lawmakers to pass for weeks — gives the city the power to quickly approve such conversions by allowing hotels to retain their existing certificates of occupancy as opposed to having to secure new ones. It also unlocks $200 million in state funding for the city to bankroll hotel-to-housing conversions.
During a signing ceremony at her office in Midtown, Hochul said the bill could not have come at a better time, as New York continues to face a dwindling affordable housing stock, worsened by inflation and other economic ripple effects from the pandemic.
“Simply put, life has gotten harder and harsher and more costly, and the most expensive of all: Housing,” Hochul told reporters. “So we need to continue to find solutions to this age-old problem that has now been exacerbated, and that’s exactly what we’re doing here today.”
Over the course of the pandemic, dozens of hotels across the five boroughs have stood empty as tourism waned, forcing some to close their doors for good and others to be retrofitted by the city into shelters for homeless people.
Adams, who joined Hochul for the signing ceremony, said there was a silver lining in that the pandemic showed that the city’s hotel market was “oversaturated,” with far more access than demand, while the need for affordable housing only increased.
In addition to affordable housing, Adams said he envisions converting hotels into “supportive housing” for the homeless population, which grew during the pandemic.
“It’s a win for taxpayers, it’s a win for the industry, and it’s a win for everyday New Yorkers who are looking for housing,” he said. “This bill would do more than build apartments — it will transform lives.”
An unlikely supporter of the legislation was Richard Maroko, the president of the Hotel Trades Council union, whose members may work at some of the sites that will now be turned into housing.
But Maroko said the bill has been tailored to make sure that only “failed hotels” will be targeted.
“Too many hotels pay substandard and poverty wages,” he said. “They’re a blight on their communities, and they attract illicit and illegal activity. Those types of hotels do nothing to promote tourism, to create good jobs or to enhance those communities, and those are the hotels that should be repurposed.”
The enactment of the hotel conversion bill comes as Adams and the City Council enter the final stretch of this year’s municipal government budget negotiations.
A major sticking point in the talks has been housing. In the executive budget proposal he released in April, Adams set aside $2.5 billion for annual spending on affordable housing development and retention, angering Council members who noted that he promised on last year’s campaign trail to dedicate at least $4 billion.
Some left-leaning Council members joined housing activists on the steps of the Tweed Courthouse near City Hall on Tuesday afternoon to urge Adams to make good on his campaign pledge.
“That ain’t right,” Ausar Burke, an activist with the Churches United For Fair Housing group, said at the rally of Adams’ $2.5 billion housing proposal. “We’re demanding that he holds good on his campaign promise.”
Adams and the Council must come to a budget agreement by July 1. A Council member involved in the negotiations confirmed Tuesday that the two sides have made enough progress to potentially announce a deal as early as this week, as first reported by Politico.