Press Release
CSS Celebrates Passage of the Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity Act in the State Legislature
The Community Service Society (CSS) commends the New York State legislature for passing the Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity Act (HONDA). This legislation creates a groundbreaking new program to convert financially distressed hotels and office buildings into permanently affordable and supportive housing. It represents a major step forward toward a just recovery.
HONDA addresses two simultaneous crises facing the state of New York. We have a longstanding housing crisis, with more than 92,000 New Yorkers facing homelessness and nearly half the state’s tenants paying unaffordable rents. Meanwhile, since the Covid-19 pandemic, hotels and office buildings in the city and state have seen record vacancy, with tourism, conventions, business travel, and in-person office work all coming to a halt for the past 15 months. We find ourselves in the staggering position of having hundreds of empty hotels and office buildings while people sleep on the streets and in shelters.
CSS identified both crises early on and saw the promise of a program that could address them together. We worked closely with the sponsors of this legislation – Senator Michael Gianaris (District 12 - Queens) and Assembly Member Karines Reyes (District 87 – Bronx) and alongside partners in tenant and homeless organizing groups, nonprofit developers and labor unions to develop comprehensive legislation that would create deeply affordable housing with robust tenant protections and high-quality standards.
The passage of the Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity Act (S5257C/A6593B) through the New York State legislature demonstrates what a just, innovative, and comprehensive recovery can look like. CSS strongly supports this legislation and urges Governor Cuomo to sign it into law.