Housing Development Fund Corporation<\/a>, giving the city the rights to utilize it for affordable housing initiatives.\u00a0<\/p>\nIn exchange, the city canceled the buildings\u2019 over $2.3 million in property tax debt. That same day, the HDFC entered into a supportive housing agreement with the HPD \u2014 declining to inform tenants of the transfer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was going on behind the scenes, but none of us were made aware of this,\u201d one long-term tenant claimed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just kept getting our rent checks. We just kept paying them to St. Matthew\u2019s and St. Timothy\u2019s. Meanwhile, the church also closed, and we\u2019re still paying rent to them, which felt weird.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s in the process of being sold off to another HDFC nonprofit, Sisters of Charity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just feel like we\u2019re not being listened to, and we are very concerned that, you know, they\u2019re going to take advantage of the 30% and remove those apartments from making rent stabilization,\u201d another tenant and association leader told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ann Korchak, president of the Small Property Owners of New York, said landlords fear the model will become the new normal.<\/p>\n
The building\u2019s deed was transferred to an HDFC in 2023, canceling over $2.3 million in property tax debt. William C Lopez\/NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cNo New York renter would be immune from the nightmare that the residents of this Upper West Side building are experiencing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmall owners are deeply concerned that the City Administration\u2019s supportive housing model will eventually be integrated into privately-owned residential properties.\u201d<\/p>\n
HPD officials and the Sisters of Charity CEO Matthew Janeczko told residents at a meeting that the placements would be strictly capped at eight units, but the building\u2019s 40-year agreement reviewed by The Post explicitly permits the owner to set aside up to 30% of the building \u2013 up to 23 apartments \u2013 for alternative placements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Article XI contract, which was approved by the New York City Council in 2024, also subsidizes the landlord for the placements with payments of up to $6,000 a month.\u00a0All standard Article XI regulatory agreements require 10% of units for formerly homeless households.<\/p>\n
Residents charge that the agreement gives the landlord incentive to force the building\u2019s current tenants \u2013 many of who are elderly or work for the city as teachers and public servants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that as we are rent-stabilized tenants, we know that they can\u2019t kick us out, but they could make our living conditions so horrendous that we just choose to leave,\u201d said one tenant who has lived in the building for over ten years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York City primarily uses two models to move homeless and high-risk individuals into permanent housing \u2013 congregate housing, in which an entire building is dedicated to supportive housing with onsite social service \u2013 and scattered-site housing \u2013 in which individuals lease conventional and private buildings.<\/p>\n
A rent-stabilized building at 126 W 83rd St. in New York is shown on Nov. 1, 2025. William C Lopez\/NY Post<\/p>\n
The scattered site model still requires social workers, case managers or weekly mobile crisis teams to visit clients on a scheduled basis \u2013 but all of the tenants interviewed by the Post claimed they have never observed support staff in or outside of the building.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not OK to gamble on our safety,\u201d another longtime resident said. \u201cYou have done so already, twice. So what\u2019s it gonna take?\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development said officials are \u201clistening to the residents\u2019 concerns\u201d and working alongside elected officials to address them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHPD recently oversaw the appointment of a new property management company and is working with them to strengthen the financial and physical stability of the building now and for decades to come,\u201d the spokesperson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are also exploring a transfer of the building to a new nonprofit owner with greater capacity to address long-running issues facing the building,\u201d the spokesperson added. \u201cAs always, our top priority is to ensure the safety and stability of all tenants and their building, preserving much-needed affordable housing in a neighborhood with too little of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a nightmare on West 83rd street! Residents of an Upper West Side building said they are \u201cliving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6722,68,57,9,56,63,65,64,564,566,7978,58],"class_list":["post-390832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-apartments","tag-exclusive","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-rent","tag-rent-stabilization","tag-tenants","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}