A full description of public engagement activities can be found in Chapter 3. Below is a summary of key activities that shaped Where We Live NYC.
Summer 2024: 5-borough library campaign
Through a partnership with the New York City’s three library systems—New York Public Library, Queens Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library— as well as the New York City Commission on Human Rights and the Fair Housing Justice Center, the City created six-week fair housing education and engagement installations in 21 public libraries.
The library installations included:
Interactive fair housing displays where library patrons learned about fair housing, provided feedback for the 2025 plan and received resources about housing discrimination and their rights. Materials were in English and the two other most popular languages at each branch.
New Yorkers shared their stories with fair housing barriers:
30 fair housing education and resources events, including:
- Screenings of Segregated by Design: a short film examining the forgotten history of how federal, state and local governments contributed to segregation in every major metropolitan area in America through law and policy
- Fair Housing for Young Adults: with the Fair Housing Justice Center, a training to help young New Yorkers learn about their rights and combat discrimination as they enter the housing market
- Know Your Fair Housing Rights: Resources for Fighting Housing Discrimination with New York City Commission on Human Rights, a training about knowing and asserting your housing rights
Spring 2025: Public Workshops
Spring 2025, HPD hosted public workshops online and in-person in the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn to learn about New Yorkers’ experiences with fair housing.
The workshops were designed to engage participants on fair housing issues impacting New Yorkers and the City’s current strategies to address them. Activities were designed to inform participants about fair housing, elicit feedback for the new plan, and empower participants to take action against housing discrimination.
2018: Community Conversations
To better understand how challenges like segregation and discrimination impact the lives of New Yorkers, the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and Hester Street organized 62 Community Conversations across the five boroughs in 15 different languages, engaging more than 700 New Yorkers.
Insights from these conversations directly shaped the goals, strategies and commitments of the first plan.
Read more in the Community Conversations Report
2018-2019: Fair Housing Stakeholder Roundtables
In 2018, the City invited more than 300 advocates, service providers, housing developers, researchers, and community leaders to inform Where We Live NYC. More than 150 organizations actively engaged through a series of 14 briefings and interactive workshops that the City hosted over the course of 20 months. Insights from these conversations directly shaped the goals, strategies and commitments of the first plan.
