NEW: The Mamdani administration is getting involved in another rent stabilized real estate auction, backing a buyer for 887 units in 39 East Harlem buildings. It's a test of the new housing plan, which vows to steward housing from bad landlords into community hands. buff.ly/o65UBjE

New entries include "Micromobility" and "Sustainability" new: www.nyc.gov/assets/plann... old: chpcny.org/wp-content/u...

Big news for nerds: The Department of City Planning updated their city planning children's book (original was put out by the LaGuardia administration in 1937) They are giving them away at upcoming Summer Streets events across the boroughs.

NEW: A judge will consider if the city discriminated by placing a trans woman in shelters with men, leading to her alleged assault. NYC has progressive LGBT policies but “there is a significant breakdown to the point at which the policies are just written pieces of paper” buff.ly/35x8k1b

NYC's latest parking vs. housing fight is playing out at these affordable East Village coops, where residents are weighing how to get money they need to repair their buildings. “I don’t believe we should be fighting for parking when there’s so much homelessness” buff.ly/GxxqFCZ

Pre-holiday weekend news dump from DSS... the 2026 unsheltered homeless count in NYC, 4,991, is the highest since the count started in 2005. Just 3.5% of NYC's homeless are unsheltered. This year's survey was conducted in March, rather than January, because of the cold spell.

Court records confirm State Judiciary Chair Luis Sepúlveda complained about a judge on one of his housing court cases to Court Administration. Sepulveda is trying to resuscitate the case after the Judge ruled for the landlord when Sepúlveda failed to show. Now he recuses himself

After fighting two different mayoral administrations to stay open, Mainchance drop-in in Midtown East closed its doors yesterday after 30 years. Some Manhattan electeds worry it will leave a gap in the homeless network, but DHS is not backing down. Story @citylimitsnews.bsky.social buff.ly/U8U6ziT

Disagreement on that is why there’s no deal yet. Some of the progressives had told me the police budget Friday, which is probably a non starter for menin and maybe Zo as well. Politico has the most up to date:

On IG, housing chair @pisancheznyc.bsky.social says there are 29 councilmembers holding out for a deal that funds CityFheps.

The always excellent Adi Talwar captured the tension and joy at last night’s historic rent guidelines board meeting: citylimits.org/photos-scene...

Frustrations are mounting over the long-delayed CityFHEPS expansion, which was missing from the Mayor and Council's budget proposals. Some progressive councilmembers are threatening a "no" if there is not significant funding for the voucher program. New @citylimitsnews.bsky.social buff.ly/J8onUA8

Must-see scenes at Thursday's RGB hearing, where the usually raucus tenant crowd was met by zombies (actors in makeup paid by landlords) who warned that a rent freeze would mean more undead vacant apartments. The board votes 6/25 citylimits.org/tenants-land...

Backed by the Mamdani admin, Pinnacle tenants are fighting to hold their new owner to repair promises they made when they bought the buildings @ auction. They say the pressure & a one-of-a-kind relationship w City Hall secured forgiveness for rent debt. @citylimitsnews.bsky.social buff.ly/UOyKybW

The NYC agency that enforces housing & labor discrimination laws is taking a cut in Mamdani's budget. While he promised no cuts, the budget's vacancy reduction savings hits the already-slim agency particularly hard-just as they had hoped to staff up. Story @citylimitsnews.bsky.social buff.ly/AesEvtG

“Starting October 1st of this year inspectors will investigate every single heat complaint the city receives.” The city had overlooked tens of thousands of heat complaints during the winter cold spell, directly addressing an April @citylimitsnews.bsky.social investigation.

This winter I reported how the city's response to heat complaints left 10s of thousands of calls unanswered. In his housing plan this AM, Mamdani announced that they would stop duplicating heat complaints, as part of broader legislative code reform. In @citylimitsnews.bsky.social buff.ly/Z3AI6yV

250 shelter beds lost from Bellevue shelter’s closure will be replaced in Brooklyn hotels, I report in @citylimitsnews.bsky.social this morning. Hotel conversions are no ideal solution and local community boards quibble with the process-but the city says they need the capacity. l1nq.com/2rn503u

Mayor says that the executive budget accounts for CityFHEPS program (and some expected savings) as it exists today and DOES NOT include a potential expansion tied up in court. "Conversations continue" with the council around expansion, he says.

Knocked on many doors and pored over at many documents to figure out who exactly is getting their homes flipped and who is flipping them? My @citylimitsnews.bsky.social story on the trend that is making homeownership feel even more out of reach & is prevalent in Black neighborhoods buff.ly/WNtxt93

The city will close another Midtown homeless facility, Mainchance Drop-in, in June. Mainchance fought off closure in court 2 years ago under Mayor Adams. This time, DHS alleges the drop-in breached their contract by turning people away. The center has vowed to fight again. buff.ly/vJPe48D

First in @citylimitsnews.bsky.social: The mayor will announce a $2.4 B commitment to add heat pumps to 20k NYCHA apartments, 10k gas stoves, and 45k with efficient lighting and plumbing. But there’s $1.2B of funding yet to be identified amid budget uncertainty->

Should families have to prove they are homeless in order to access services? A new Council bill would make DHS take them at their word. In @citylimitsnews.bsky.social I dive into why city "fraud investigators" assess a family's eligibility for shelter-and whether it's necessary. buff.ly/RiL7QJq

And here's what the admin themselves counts as their accomplishments on housing, from a press release today:

It was a scene in housing court Monday. Attorneys told me it was sloppy work that--if they did it--might get them fired After one judge ruled against the frustrated senator last month, the judge abruptly resigned, only to appear back on the bench earlier this week. buff.ly/m4dgx37

State Sen. Luis Sepúlveda-who chairs the NY Sen. judiciary committee-has no-showed court appearances in 4/5 recent eviction defense cases he's argued, frustrating judges and risking his client's eviction. My scoop in @citylimitsnews.bsky.social buff.ly/m4dgx37

The mayor is doing a Reddit AMA for tenants this afternoon at 1:45. Comments and questions are already pouring in. www.reddit.com/r/nyc/s/nYmg...

Ever called 311 because you didn't have heat? Did your complaint go nowhere? I traced what actually happens to 311 complaints about heat and hot water issues, which are at all time high in NYC. Only a small fraction get an inspection or result in a violation.

During the winter cold spell, when the city's housing agency received a record number of complaints of no heat or hot water, over half of them were tagged as duplicates and were closed out without direct follow up. buff.ly/gpAKiTx

For lack of heat, it doesn’t just feel like tenants’ complaints are going unanswered; in some cases, they actually are. My @citylimitsnews.bsky.social investigation on how a duplicate-tagging system shortchanges some tenants to maximize efficiency + what the mayor might do about it buff.ly/gpAKiTx