Established in 1978 in the wake of Local Law 45 of 1976, the Department is the largest municipal developer of affordable housing in the United States.

By the end of 2021, the City of New York financed more than 200,000 affordable homes since 2014, breaking the all-time record previously set by former Mayor Ed Koch.

[3] The Agency also enforces the City's Housing Maintenance Code,[4] which covers heat and hot water, mold, pests, gas leaks, fire safety, and more.

Beginning under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the program ostensibly benefits the working class and frees the city from ownership or responsibility for tenants.

[7] According to the report, DHP and the New York City Department of Finance "target[ed] and t[ook] numerous Black and Brown owned properties...thus stripping these communities of millions of dollars of generational wealth".