The Homeowner’s Handbook. Image Credit: Mayor’s Office.
This comprehensive guide is designed to help more New Yorkers achieve home ownership, particularly in low income communities and communities of color. On July 27, 2022, Mayor Eric Adams released the “Homeowner Handbook: Protecting and Maintaining Home in NYC”. The handbook is designed to help New Yorkers navigate the responsibilities of homeownership, and provides resources for homeowners to protect and maintain their homes.
The comprehensive guide is an initiative of the Homeowner Help Desk, which was piloted in Central Brooklyn, Southeast Queens, and the North Bronx with funding from Enterprise Community Partners and the Office of the New York Attorney General. The Help Desk supports homeowners facing the greatest risk of displacement, and has successfully reached 34,000 homeowners, connected more than 800 residents to services, and helped more than 400 homeowners strengthen their financial situations. The Homeowner Handbook was crafted by the Help Desk in partnership with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, the Office of the NYS Attorney General, and local community-based organizations.
The handbook will help owners of one- to four-family homes identify public entities and homeownership programs, and provides information on financial assistance and other resources to maintain and keep a home. It also includes guidance on addressing code violations, paying arrears, and complying with local laws and regulations.
HPD, the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, and Brooklyn-based housing partners shared the handbook and other tools with homeowners at a homeowner resource fair on July 27 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. This event was co-hosted with the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Buildings, and the Department of Finance.
Homeowners who missed the resource fair can call 1-855-HOME-456 to learn how to obtain a free copy of the Homeowner Handbook.
The Homeowner Handbook was born out of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Housing Plan, which Mayor Adams worked on as Brooklyn Borough President. The Handbook also affirms the Mayor’s commitment to supporting homeowners and first-time homebuyers, outlined at length in his Housing Blueprint. Over the next four years, the administration expects to help 450 households with critical home repairs, support 1,200 first-time homebuyers, and reach 4,000 more homeowners with the Homeowner Help Desk. This administration’s emphasis on homeownership also comes amid a 20-year decline in Black New Yorkers’ home ownership, exacerbated by the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.
NYC Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz praised the new initiative, stating, “Homeownership is one of our most important tools to supporting housing stability and building generational wealth. The new Homeowner Handbook will help New Yorkers learn about the resources and programs available to maintain and stay in their homes.”
NYS Attorney General Letitia James added that “far too many homeowners have fallen prey to deed theft and other predatory housing scams. Using funds from my office’s initiative to prevent deed theft, this new Homeowner Handbook will help build on our efforts to educate New Yorkers about these scams, their rights, and ensure they can remain in their homes. I am proud to partner with Mayor Adams, HPD, and housing advocates to launch this critical resource and protect our communities for years to come.”
Mayor Adams shared, “The best way to build wealth is to own a home, and my administration is investing the money and doing the work to make the dream of homeownership a reality for more New Yorkers. I will not accept a city where Black and Brown communities and renters are priced out of the chance to build wealth for their children and grandchildren. The Homeowner Handbook will provide New Yorkers with critical tools to not only own a home, but also protect it and maintain it so they can pass it onto the next generation.”
By: Cassidy Strong (Cassidy is a CityLaw intern and a New York Law School student, Class of 2024.)
Mayor’s Office: Mayor Adams Releases Homeowner Handbook, Comprehensive Guide to Help New Yorkers Protect, Maintain Their Homes, July 27, 2022.
Homeownership is the best thing for NYC and our neighborhoods.
This is the best idea I have heard, the owners do not know the laws in what you can and cannot do they are under the impression they own the home they can do whatever they want when they are given violations they hire (not be know to them) contractors that take there money and leave and assume another company name, then you have Architects and Engineer many are good and are given them a bad name again they are given money and when they feel like it help some of these homeowners. This is the best if possible make them go to a training so this would help them and the city.