Converting municipal land into housing New Yorkers need

If you’ve ever walked past an empty lot or an underused municipal building and thought, “We should do something better with this,” you’re not alone.
The truth is that not all the vacant land one sees is owned by the City, but those that are represent an opportunity to allocate public funds to the transformation of public lands for the common good. And it’s not just vacant land. At HPD, in collaboration with our partner agencies, we are learning from past experience and applying new tools to reimagine how municipal properties and facilities, including parking lots and garages, are used. At a time of urgent housing need, we must ask ourselves if these spaces are truly making the most of their potential. When this is not the case, we must act. And I’m proud to say that HPD has leveraged this approach for decades, but in recent years, with greater urgency and renewed vigor.
You can already see the fruits of our work. For example, last year, under Mayor Adams’ leadership, New York City housing agencies exceeded their common goal of advancing 24 affordable housing projects on public lands in 12 months. We moved forward on 26 projects, surpassing the mayor’s original goal and demonstrating what can be achieved when we align resources, leadership and urgency. These developments benefited from a strong collaboration between municipal government, nonprofit organizations and private developers, working together to deliver more housing more quickly and equitably.
The footprint of this work covers the entire city. For example, our project in the Inwood neighborhood, where a little-used municipal parking lot along the Harlem River is being renovated through a community-driven planning process that will generate more than 600 affordable homes and public green spaces. In Staten Island, we are converting a former municipal garage on Jersey Street into more than 200 affordable homes and a new community center. In the Bronx, we just announced plans for The Stemma: 149 sustainable, highly affordable homes on a long-vacant lot in Crotona Park East.
We are open and willing to all opportunities to create new homes for New Yorkers. In fact, the headquarters of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, located at 100 Gold in the heart of Lower Manhattan, will be transformed into what we estimate could be between 1,000 and 2,000 new homes, at least 25% of which will be affordable. This project will generate more affordable housing than has been built in the last decade in this area of ​​the city. HPD is also moving forward with the redevelopment of a municipal commercial building in downtown Brooklyn, located at 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension. Additionally, the City is working with our development partners to transform the land into more than 1,200 new homes, with between 250 and 380 affordable units, and new public open spaces.
In addition to these projects, HPD pushed seven more affordable housing projects on public lands, representing 1,070 new homes, through the land use approval process, known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure or ULURP, in 2024. One of these projects, the Brownsville Arts Center & Apartments, will bring not only 283 affordable homes to Brownsville, but also an arts center cultural venues with space for performances, rehearsals and studios for use by local cultural and artistic groups.
Whether building on a public library or transforming an empty parking lot, we focus on creating homes that serve the New Yorkers who need them most: seniors, formerly homeless families, and low-income families. This goes beyond building homes. It’s about building a city where everyone has a safe and affordable home. We know this work is urgent, and in a city as resourceful and resilient as New York, an empty lot should never be an obstacle to a family having a roof over their heads. The work continues.
Ahmed Tigani is Acting Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development