FILE – A lady passes by an residence constructing in Manhattan.
Picture by Dean Moses
New York Metropolis’s Division of Housing Preservation and Improvement (HPD) will companion with a College of Michigan analysis institute for its housing emptiness survey, New York News has discovered.
The College of Michigan’s Institute for Social Analysis (ISR), a distinguished tutorial survey analysis group, will present experience and know-how for HPD’s 2026 NYC Housing and Emptiness Survey (NYCHVS), which measures the speed of vacant housing and general housing inhabitants and inventory traits roughly each three years, in accordance with a press launch shared solely with New York News.
HPD researchers hope ISR will assist develop information assortment, modernize evaluation, embody extra language interpretation and oversee the methodology. ISR specialists will likely be concerned in each side of the design, strategies, and on-the-ground survey work, HPD officers stated.
The partnership comes after the 2023 survey put New York Metropolis’s emptiness fee at 1.4%, the bottom because the survey started in 1968, which specialists and officers say is a big driver of town’s affordability disaster. Mayor Eric Adams has made constructing new housing a centerpiece of his administration, and the 2026 HVS will present the primary have a look at town’s progress.
Lyz Gaumer, HPD’s chief analysis officer who leads the NYCHVS, informed New York News that the partnership goals to help collaboration between different metropolis companies to develop complete coverage proposals.
“We want to make sure that New York City as a whole is making decisions and setting policy in an integrated way, that we’re not just siloed,” Gaumer stated. “We’re not thinking about housing on one side, health on another and education on a third. We want to make sure that those things are working together, and that we’re thinking about how we build the best policy for New York now and in the future.”
The NYCHVS, which is the US’ longest-running housing survey, informs citywide coverage selections by means of a complete profile of New York Metropolis’s housing inventory and demographics, together with detailed details about rent-regulated tenants.
“It is really used very widely by lots of New York City agencies, as well as by media and academics and community groups, to understand what’s happening in New York right now, and what has changed or remains the same over,” Gaumer stated. “We all should care about the survey, because it is this amazing resource for us to understand what is happening to people in our communities over this long history.”
ISR will exchange the U.S. Census Bureau, which HPD contracted for the survey since 1965, a transfer that metropolis officers say will assist modernize New York Metropolis’s method to housing. The College of Michigan’s social science information archive will host survey information from 1978 onward, accessible to the general public.
Gaumer stated that whereas the Census Bureau has been an amazing companion, HPD hopes to proceed to advance their strategies.
“We want to push the envelope and make sure that it is representing every New Yorker and every type of housing because this is so important to decision-making here in our city,” Gaumer stated.
Performing HPD Commissioner Ahmed Tigani stated in a press release that ISR will assist HPD analyze and synthesize the information from the survey to develop inexpensive housing options.
“ISR is one of the premier centers for data collection and analysis in the world, and our collaboration with them will allow us to more effectively manage and access data, and by extension, serve New Yorkers and all of their housing needs for generations to come,” Tigani stated. “As the start of the 2026 NYCHVS approaches, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment in our work to build and preserve affordable housing across the five boroughs. Our partnership will strengthen these efforts and help us deliver a fairer, more equitable City for all.”
The outcomes of the housing survey will doubtless be launched in early 2027.
Gaumer stated ISR will lay the groundwork for future iterations of the NYCHVS, serving to HPD adapt to a altering metropolis.
“We want to make sure that we’re setting up for the legacy of the next 60 years on the survey,” Gaumer stated. “And I think that’s an amazing group to be able to do that with.”
