New York Hotels to Housing Program at a Standstill

New York City’s hotel conversion program continues to yield zero results, more than a year after Mayor Eric Adams promised to create 25,000 new affordable housing units in the city’s vacant hotels. According to an article by Janaki Chadha in Politico, the program has languished in part due to influence from the Hotel Trades Council union.

Despite pledging $200 million to the Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity act, the state and city have failed to gain interest from developers wary of complicated zoning and building codes, Chadha reports. The conversion of smaller hotels to supportive housing can be prohibitively expensive, and less expensive properties may be too far from public transit and other key amenities. 

Meanwhile, the union and its supporters argue that keeping hotels open creates economic development and important local jobs. According to Seth Pinsky, former head of the city’s Economic Development Corporation under Mayor Mike Bloomberg, “I do think that eventually, we’re going to have the need again for those hotel rooms. And hotel rooms not only attract visitors, which generates economic activity, but hotels tend to employ people who, in many cases, are otherwise difficult to employ.”

After dropping to 39.1 percent in September 2020, hotel occupancy in the city shot back up to 81.2 percent in the week ending September 3, 2022, signaling a strong return of the tourism sector. “As travelers once again fill the city’s inns, owners are less desperate to offload their properties — particularly for sums that affordable and supportive housing developers can match.”