NYC Housing Maintenance Code Complaints and Problems

New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development records public complaints about conditions violating the Housing Maintenance Code or Multiple Dwelling Law. The dataset includes detailed location data, complaint status, and categorization of problems. Columns suggest it tracks the lifecycle of complaints from receipt to resolution.

Use Cases

• Mapping complaint density by neighborhood using Latitude, Longitude, and Community Board.
• Analyzing complaint resolution rates by Problem Status and Complaint Status Date.
• Identifying common violation types across building types using Major Category, Minor Category, and Unit Type.
• Cross-referencing complaints with property records via BBL (Borough-Block-Lot) and BIN.
• Assessing anonymous reporting trends using the Complaint Anonymous Flag.

Strengths

• Contains precise geospatial identifiers including Latitude, Longitude, BBL, and Census Tract.
• Provides detailed categorical breakdowns of complaints via Major Category and Minor Category.
• Appears on multiple government platforms (Socrata, Data.gov), indicating official provenance and sustained publication.

Limitations

• Key metadata is missing or conflicting: row counts, file sizes, and license information are not provided.
• The 'last updated' dates from the platforms (2026-04-03 and 2026-04-05) are in the future, casting doubt on data freshness.
• One source (datagov) provides no column details, limiting a full understanding of the data structure from that platform.

Provenance

Source

New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)

Collection Method

Records complaints made by the public regarding code violations.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated dates are reported as 2026-04-03 and 2026-04 05, which are implausible future dates.

Geography

New York City, with breakdowns by Borough, Community Board, and Council District.