NEW YORK APARTMENT ASSOCIATION
The Voice of Rent-Stabilized Housing
TESTIMONY OF KENNY BURGOS
Chief Executive Officer, New York Apartment Association
Before the New York City Council Committee on Public Housing
June 17, 2026
In Support of the Resolution Urging Passage of A.10992/S.9430-A
Good morning, Chair Banks and members of the committee. My name is Kenny Burgos, and I am the CEO of the New York Apartment Association. Our members own and operate the majority of New York City’s rent-stabilized housing — hundreds of thousands of homes, concentrated in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Upper Manhattan, in the very neighborhoods this committee cares most about.
I am here today to do something that may surprise some people: I am here to ask this Council, and through this resolution, the State Legislature and the Governor, to expand and strengthen a rental assistance program. Because I want to put a myth to rest, once and for all.
The myth is that property owners don’t accept vouchers — that we don’t want them, that we see subsidized tenants as a burden. The opposite is true. Our members house tens of thousands of New Yorkers with CityFHEPS, Section 8, and other assistance every single day. A voucher means a stable tenancy, a reliable payment, and a family that can stay in their home through a job loss, an illness, or a crisis. No rational owner turns that away. When owners hesitate, it isn’t the voucher — it’s the bureaucracy around it: months-long inspection delays, payments that arrive late or not at all, and case workers no one can reach. We need to fix the process.
So let me be crystal clear. Our organization thinks vouchers are great. We want them expanded. We want the government to administer them better so people get out of shelters more quickly. We are completely in line with the City Council on this issue. The only person opposed to improving and expanding vouchers right now is the mayor.
On this specific resolution. We support it because it does two practical things. First, it allows the Housing Access Voucher Program to prioritize not only New Yorkers who are already homeless, but families on the verge of losing their federal rental subsidy because of cuts or eligibility changes in Washington. That is not a hypothetical. Federal housing assistance in this city is under real and immediate pressure. It is far cheaper — in dollars and in human terms — to keep a family housed than to rehouse them out of the shelter system. Second, the bill lets local administrators inspect units under consistent state standards, streamlining one of the chokepoints that has slowed every voucher program this city has ever run.
I also want to be honest with this committee about why our support matters, and what it is contingent on. Our members wholly support housing New Yorkers who need help. What we cannot support is being asked to do it for free.
Vouchers are rent freezes for tenants in need, without bankrupting buildings that are facing rising costs, including government-backed property tax hikes and water rate increases. Many buildings are also struggling with high rent arrears because of a broken housing court system.
The idea that we shouldn’t expand vouchers because we can just freeze the rents is a recipe for failure. We are already seeing buildings fail due to systemic defunding. There are now dozens of independent housing experts who have waived a red flag about the growing physical and financial distress in New York City. If we keep on this path, the city will lose housing supply, and there will be fewer homes for voucher holders.
Helping its citizens pay for their housing is the best investment a government can make. Every voucher dollar keeps a family stable, keeps a building solvent, keeps a neighborhood maintained, and comes back to the public in tax revenue and avoided shelter costs. That is the model. Vouchers — funded, prioritized, and administered competently — are how you make housing affordable. Freezing rents and defunding homes is how you make housing disappear.
We urge this committee to pass the resolution and we hope that Albany fully funds HAVP in future budgets, and we stand ready to put our members’ homes behind it.
Thank you. I’m happy to take questions.