By August, roughly 1,700 “cluster site” apartments in the city should be available — most of which will be rent regulated.
City and state officials are working to phase out 1,700 apartments in the cluster site program by the end of July, Crain’s reported. Under the program, which was started in the Giuliani administration, homeless individuals are housed in privately-owned apartments, which were paid for by the city. Last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to phase out the program by 2021.
“It is nothing if not a complicated system, so we are trying to make a clear set of rules for people,” RuthAnne Visnauskas, commissioner of the state Department of Homes and Community Renewal, told Crain’s.
More than 3,600 units throughout the city were being used at the program’s peak. Because the units were exempted from rent caps, the city was paying an average of $2,451 a month per unit by 2015. Many of these units are expected to be subject to rent regulation once they are discontinued as shelters. [Crain’s] — Kathryn Brenzel