Seniors First - HPD

Housing Preservation & Development


Seniors First


Seniors First

The population of city residents who are at least 65 years old is projected to increase by 40 percent between 2010 and 2040. This means that we will need to house more than 400,000 additional seniors in the coming years. Our seniors are more likely to be low-income, to be rent-burdened, and to live on a fixed income than other city residents.

Seniors First is a three-pronged strategy, including:

Aging in Place

Many seniors prefer to age in place and stay in their homes and their communities. Individuals with disabilities also struggle to find accessible housing in their neighborhoods. Aging in Place is an initiative to make more homes accessible to seniors and people with disabilities. This new assessment process for preservation projects enables seniors to age in place and makes more housing accessible for people with disabilities.

Developing New Senior Housing on NYCHA Land

NYCHA is allocating a pipeline of underused sites to create new senior housing in order to expand its commitment to affordable housing development above the 10,000 affordable apartments already planned through NextGen NYCHA. HPD will finance these projects though the Senior Affordable Rental Apartments (SARA) Program and has designated the first projects to be developed on NYCHA land.

Supporting Seniors through Preservation

New York City has an existing inventory of affordable senior housing, and preserving this stock is critical to meeting the needs of our aging population. This new initiative targets approximately 170 buildings creating through the HUD Section 202 program with 14,000 apartments as well as other existing senior housing developments.