Slow Rent Collections Further Distress NYC’s Affordable Housing Market

Since the 2019 Housing Stability & Tenant Protection Act was enacted into law, combined with rising expenses including insurance, utility bills and increasingly expensive maintenance, New York City’s subsidized affordable housing operators and lenders are experiencing increased distress that has been further intensified by tenants not paying their rent like they used to. It has been pointed out the “some city policies incentivize tenants to fall deeper into arrears, in part due to the months taken by housing court and some rental assistance programs such as the CityFHEPS voucher program that can end quickly, keeping renters in units they can’t afford. Nonprofit lender Enterprise Community Partners reportedly pointed out that the average rent collection in its New York affordable projects lowered from 95% to 90%; and while it seems a small difference, it can “mean a loss of about $6,000 per month or $75,000 per year — the amount of the annual insurance payment on three or four units. It was further noted that “the number of projects experiencing more concerning collection rates below 80% has more than tripled from 3% in 2017 to 11% now. Growing concerns about revenue being further stymied are rising amid Mayor Mamdani’s campaign promise to freeze rent increases, since among the agreements made by affordable housing nonprofit and for-profit operators to access city and state funding and financing is to adhere to the maximum rent increase levels set by the city’s Rent Guidelines Board (RGB). The New York Housing Conference, which advocates for affordable housing, has reportedly proposed a separate housing court specifically for those in subsidized units intended to speed up housing court, which at the least in theory, could save the city money by helping tenants when they have less in arrears as well as possibly easing evictions.

Source:    https://therealdeal.com/magazine/january-2026/cant-pay-wont-pay/