Joint NYCC Committees on Aging, Disabilities, and Finance Hold SCRIE/DRIE Oversight Hearing on September 18, 2026

The New York City Council Committees on Aging, Disabilities, and Finance met jointly at 11:00 AM on Friday, September 18, 2026, in Council Chambers at City Hall for an oversight hearing on the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) and Disability Rent Increase Exemption (DRIE). Councilmember Susan Zhuang chaired alongside co-chairs Councilmember Shahana Hanif (Disabilities) and Councilmember Linda Lee (Finance). Committee members Hanif, Cabán, Epstein, and Joseph were present; Nurse was absent. The hearing lasted approximately five hours and covered underenrollment, administrative barriers, outreach gaps, and multiple pending local laws and state resolutions. No final votes were taken; all agenda items were laid over after hearings, with amendments made to Intro 978-A, Res 55-A, and Res 610-A.

Public Comments & Testimony

• Clement Seo, representing the Metropolitan Asian Deaf Association, said deaf seniors face systemic barriers to DRIE: inaccessible notices, phone-dependent 311 processes, video relay call problems, and late recertification mailings. He urged proactive DRIE notices whenever landlords raise rents for tenants receiving disability benefits, ASL video appointments and dedicated email support at DOF, and funding for community-based DRIE navigation.
• Legal Services NYC and Brooklyn Legal Services stated they assisted nearly 1,200 families, totaling more than 1,700 people, with obtaining SCRIE/DRIE benefits from 2023 through 2025 and more than 300 households in 2026. They supported Intro 978-A, giving client examples of households above the $50,000 cap who were at risk of eviction.
• BronxWorks, Legal Aid Society, Volunteers of Legal Service, ARP New York, JASA, NYSAFAA, UHAB, Access Justice Brooklyn, APNA, Goddard Riverside, Woodside on the Move, Project Guardianship, Encore, SPOP, CNYC, and other groups testified in support of the legislative package, including raising income limits, universal applications, automatic enrollment, and stronger outreach.
• UHAB said HDFC and Mitchell-Lama shareholders still must use HPD paper applications; it described a senior who applied for SCRIE in February 2026 with no approval and reported that one HPD person is approving HDFC applications.
• Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Siegel supported Intro 978-A and state automatic-enrollment legislation, noting Manhattan's average rent reached $6,650 in August 2026 and the $50,000 income cap has been frozen since 2014, while shelter costs rose about 46% in that period.
• Several Mitchell-Lama residents and Mitchell-Lama Residents Coalition officers, including Millicent Reddick, Barbara Jones, Katie Bordnero, and Michelle Hall, urged passage of Intro 978. They cited fixed incomes, fear of displacement, maintenance increases such as Rochdale Village's 31.2% increase, and a case where a resident lost SCRIE after a management company change.
• Multiple EMTs and paramedics from FDNY, private, and hospital-based 911 systems testified about understaffing, low pay, long response times, and impacts on older and disabled New Yorkers. The chairs acknowledged the seriousness of the EMS issues, noted the testimony was outside the SCRIE/DRIE agenda, and offered follow-up meetings.
• Individual tenants and residents testified about eviction, application delays, and housing instability; several asked for legal assistance or follow-up. One witness testified about monetary policy and banking, which was not directly related to the agenda.

Discussion Items

• In opening statements, Chair Zhuang said SCRIE/DRIE are critical for older adults on fixed incomes but underutilized; Chair Lee highlighted language and cultural barriers; Chair Hanif said DRIE enrollment peaked at 12,215 households in 2019 and fell to 11,012 by 2024, a decline of nearly 10%, while DOF estimated roughly 158,000 households were eligible in 2023 with about 42% enrolled, down from 56% four years earlier.
• Hanif also said among DRIE recipients in 2024, median household income was $16,671 and the median tenant paid 62% of income toward frozen rent; she called freezing rent at an unaffordable level insufficient. She noted the Bronx was the only borough where DRE enrollment fell and that fewer than a quarter of eligible households were enrolled in Morrisania and East Tremont.
• Councilmember Marte said Intro 307 would create a universal online SCRIE application portal; he described Mitchell-Lama tenants using HPD paper applications and faxing documents in 2026. Councilmember Cabán supported the automatic-enrollment resolution. Councilmember Banks described his bill requiring annual DOF training for agencies serving older adults and people with disabilities. Councilmember Lewis said Intro 978-A would raise the SCRIE/DRIE income limit from $50,000 to $75,000 retroactive to July 1, 2026.
• DOF First Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Scheer testified that DOF supports Intro 978-A, projecting enrollment would rise about 9%, or about 5,000 households, with estimated fiscal impacts of $4.5 million in the first year, $8.6 million in the second, and $13 million in the third.
• DOF said it supports the objective of Intro 307 but a universal application and online system for all households would require substantial technical and operational upgrades and coordination with HPD; DOF offered to work with the council on the underlying goal.
• DOF reported FY26 SCHE grants of 50,912 exemptions with $1.1 billion in exempt assessed value and an estimated tax expenditure of $190.9 million, plus 2,500 DHE exemptions with an estimated $8.5 million tax expenditure. DOF was generally supportive of increasing SCHE income caps but deferred positions on Intro 934 and the benefit-level increase in Intro 1010 pending FY28 budget clarity.
• DOF reported a 95% SCRIE/DRIE renewal rate over the past three years, with 70% of the 3,204 non-renewed benefits due to late or missed deadlines (2,237 cases); 967 were not renewed because households no longer met eligibility requirements. DOF also reported combined SCRIE/DRIE tax expenditures of $178 million in FY26, projected $214 million in FY27 and $243 million in FY28.
• NYC Aging Deputy Commissioner Ryan Murray described outreach through 308 older adult centers, case management agencies serving more than 30,000 homebound older adults, and Aging Connect, but acknowledged gaps in reaching ethnic media platforms such as WeChat and KK Talk. MOPD's commissioner described DRIE referrals, tabling, town halls, and constituent calls, and said MOPD wants to expand outreach to working-age people with disabilities.
• Councilmembers pressed agencies on outreach to deaf, limited-English-proficient, immigrant, and homebound communities; asked for borough-level eligibility and enrollment data; questioned staffing levels; and asked about automatic renewals, joint applications, and budget resources. DOF said many data requests would be provided as follow-up.

Key Outcomes

• No final votes were taken. The committee held hearings on the oversight item and all listed introductions/resolutions and laid them over by committee.
• Intro 978-2026-A was amended by committee; Proposed Res. 55-A and Proposed Res. 610-A were also amended by committee. All remained laid over.
• The oversight item T2026-2313 was heard and filed.
• DOF, NYC Aging, HPD, and MOPD committed to follow-up data and answers, including borough breakdowns, outreach event lists, staffing counts, application/referral data, translation and media-use information, and eligibility estimates.
• Written testimony may be submitted within 72 hours after the hearing to testimony@council.nyc.gov.

Note on Discrepancies

• The supplied agenda does not list Int 1072-2026 or Int 1088-2026, but the meeting minutes reflect that both introductions were heard and laid over by committee. The minutes also list the proposed preconsidered local laws under T2026-2458 and T2026-2546, while the transcript refers to related bills and resolutions by number. This summary relies on the minutes for committee actions and notes the discrepancy rather than choosing one version silently.