Can’t pay, won’t pay: Why are rent collections down in affordable housing?

 That was a tweet from Politico earlier this week, one that got a good amount of attention. 

It was related to a story they published about affordable housing operators and data showing they are collecting less in rent. 

I similarly wrote about this subject for our January magazine. This is a pertinent issue that affects how affordable housing operators are able to stay in the black. But it’s also an interesting social question that potentially illuminates just how the rental and affordable housing systems work in New York. 

As Politico said, no one has a smoking gun showing exactly why collections have dropped. But here are a few theories that came up in my reporting:

1. Tenants are in a tight squeeze. 

Everyone I spoke with, even on the landlord side, said they believe affordable housing residents are having a harder time making ends meet. 

This was a population that largely works in-person and was hit hard economically by Covid. That’s when collections dropped precipitously. And though they’ve recovered substantially, they’re still several percentage points behind pre-pandemic levels. 

2. The pandemic shifted how people think about rent

This is where you start getting into some armchair sociology. But there’s one idea out there, basically untestable, that pandemic-era rental assistance and eviction moratoriums made people stop putting paying rent above other needs. 

Robert Riggs, of Community Preservation Corp., told me that the lender has seen incredibly variable collections across its portfolio. In some cases, one building will have incredibly low collections while another, seemingly no different, is seeing high collections. Are tenants observing one neighbor not paying the full amount and staying in their home? It’s hard to say, but this is one idea. 

3. City policy incentivizes going deeper into arrears

It’s in the city’s best interest to keep people housed, so the city helps people financially with their rent. 

But it prioritizes those in the deepest need — deep in arrears and about to be evicted. Affordable housing operators told me that tenants who need a little help don’t get it, and they end up, intentionally or not, getting help when they are deeply in trouble. 

“They kind of have to roll their dice out to the edge,” said John Crotty, of Workforce Housing Group. “Which is awful, right? But they won’t help you unless you’re in that position.”

A thing we’ve learned: Dev Awasthi is no longer vice president of legislative affairs at the Real Estate Board of New York after Politico reporter Jason Beeferman posted video footage of a man who appeared to be Awasthi tearing down Jack Schlossberg campaign signs.  

Elsewhere:

— Legal Services NYC says supportive housing providers are ignoring guidance from the Mamdani administration to ease up on evictions, reports Gothamist. Now, they’re calling for a 90-day pause on all eviction cases.

— There were 278,000 immediately hazardous housing code violations in 2025, down slightly from 2024, but more than double the number in 2018, reports New York Focus. This data comes months after Mamdani’s pledge to crack down on building mismanagement.

https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2026/06/24/rent-collections-are-down-in-new-yorks-affordable-housing/