NEW YORK CITY—New York City is financing the acquisition of 25 to 30 cluster site buildings, home to approximately 800 homeless families and 300 other tenants, to create more than 1,100 permanent and affordable homes.

On WNYC, “The Brian Lehrer Show” on Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio explained cluster buildings have long been controversial. “The city didn't have enough shelters, so it started renting apartments in unfortunately, buildings that were not in good shape,” said de Blasio. “It cost a lot of money and the housing wasn't great. We said we were going to get out of all of those clusters.”

In a recent development with the mayor's “Turning the Tide on Homelessness in New York City” plan, the city identified a few dozen buildings with a substantial number of apartments sheltering homeless people. The city will offer to buy those buildings from the owners to convert them to permanent, affordable housing. If the owners will not sell, in buildings where 50% or more of the apartments house homeless people who are supported by the city, the de Blasio administration will use eminent domain to take those buildings, paying full compensation as determined by the courts.

The attorney-in-chief of the Legal Aid Society, Seymour W. James, Jr., applauds the measure. “For almost 20 years, cluster sites removed affordable rent regulated apartments from the affordable rental housing stock, exacerbating the homeless crisis and rewarding bad landlords by overpaying them,” James says. “Our clients relegated to these units have had to suffer decrepit living quarters riddled with housing and health code violations that no human being should have to endure.”

The Department of Social Services commissioner, Steven Banks, says the crisis has been decades in the making and demands aggressive action. “As we end the Giuliani-era cluster program, already reducing citywide use by more than a third, this strategy is part of our commitment to using every tool at our disposal to help New Yorker in need get back on their feet.”

The administration characterizes the cluster program as a stop-gap measure that needs to be phased out. During the transition, the cluster apartment will continue to operate as homeless shelters, with funding and services provided by the City's Department of Homeless Services.

The mayor's office also notes that it recently released its “Housing New York 2.0,” a plan to accelerate the creation of 200,000 affordable homes by 2022. In addition, it expands that goal to financing 300,000 affordable homes by 2026—enough to house the entire population of Boston.

Instant Insights /

City Converting Cluster Buildings into Permanent Housing for the Homeless

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