# NYC Housing & Buildings AI Agent Connect

> NYC Housing & Buildings (HPD) provides your agent with direct access to New York City's housing maintenance and building records. You can pull HMC complaints, NYCHA violations, housing litigation, and vacate orders without needing an API key. It works with any MCP-compatible client like Claude, Cursor, or Windsurf.

## Overview
- **Category:** government-public-data
- **Price:** Free
- **Endpoint:** https://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_JjcPwgKiIlpOehqQsjvmCT0x5aYbomDw3xXTPAke/ai-agent-connect
- **Tags:** new-york, nyc, housing, hpd, hmc, vacate-orders, litigation, heat-sensors

## Description

You can query real-time New York City housing and building maintenance data through your AI client. This MCP connects you to HPD records, including maintenance complaints, litigation cases, and vacate orders. If you are researching property history or checking for active violations, you can pull specific data on HMC problem codes, NYCHA hazard classes, or DOB open-market order charges. The data is structured to handle large datasets, such as the HPD complaints and litigation tables, by using date windows or specific filters to keep your queries fast. You can also check on building jurisdiction programs or identify buildings equipped with HPD heat sensors. It is a direct way to bring NYC's massive public housing datasets into your local development or research environment.

## Tools

### list_heat_sensor_buildings
This tool lists buildings equipped with HPD heat sensors. You can filter the results by borough or current status to find specific locations.

### lookup_building_programs
Use this to check a building's jurisdiction program status. You need the DOB building ID to get the management program and record status.

### search_hmc_complaints
This tool searches HPD Housing Maintenance Code complaints. It uses a 90-day window by default to manage the large volume of complaint data.

### search_housing_litigations
This tool searches through housing litigation cases. You can filter by case type, status, respondent, or building ID to find specific legal records.

### search_nycha_violations
Use this to find NYCHA HMC violations. It provides details on hazard classes and inspection dates for specific developments.

### search_omo_charges
This tool searches DOB open-market order charges. It returns award amounts, work types, and lifecycle stages for specific buildings.

### search_vacate_orders
This tool searches for HPD repair and vacate orders. It returns the reason for a vacate order, the type, and the number of units affected.

### top_hmc_problem_codes
This tool identifies the most frequently reported HMC problem codes within a specific time window, up to 365 days.

## Prompt Examples

**Prompt:** 
```
What are the most common HMC complaint codes in the past 90 days?
```

**Response:** 
```
The top_hmc_problem_codes tool with a 90-day window shows the most reported codes ranked by complaint count.
```

**Prompt:** 
```
Find open HMC complaints about heat and hot water in Manhattan.
```

**Response:** 
```
Using search_hmc_complaints with Manhattan as the borough, Heat & Hot Water as the category, and an OPEN status returns the relevant records.
```

**Prompt:** 
```
Which buildings participate in the HPD heat-sensor program?
```

**Response:** 
```
The list_heat_sensor_buildings tool returns active buildings, including their unit counts, program start dates, and coordinates.
```

## Capabilities

### Complaint Tracking
Your agent can pull specific HMC complaints and rank them by problem code.

### Legal Record Access
Your AI client can search housing litigation cases and judgment text.

### Violation Monitoring
You can check for NYCHA violations and HPD vacate orders.

### Building Program Lookup
Your agent can verify a building's jurisdiction and management program status.

### Heat Sensor Identification
You can list buildings that have active HPD heat sensors by borough.

## Use Cases

### Property Risk Assessment
Check a specific building for recent vacate orders or outstanding HMC complaints before a purchase.

### Trend Analysis
Identify which heating or plumbing issues are most prevalent in a specific borough over a 90-day period.

### NYCHA Compliance Check
Search for specific hazard classes and inspection dates within NYCHA developments.

### Litigation Research
Pull legal case statuses and judgment text for specific respondents in housing court.

## Benefits

- Access NYC Open Data without managing API keys.
- Query massive datasets using pre-set time windows to ensure fast responses.
- Directly connect housing records to your existing AI coding or research environment.
- Filter complex litigation and complaint data using natural language prompts.

## How It Works

Connecting to this data is a single-step process that brings NYC's housing records into your AI client.

1. Subscribe to the NYC Housing & Buildings MCP on Vinkius.
2. Connect your client, such as Claude or Cursor, to the Vinkius host.
3. Ask your AI client to search for specific building data or complaint trends.
4. The agent executes the corresponding tool to pull data from NYC Open Data.
5. Review the structured results directly in your chat or code editor.

## Frequently Asked Questions

**Do I need an API key to use this NYC housing data?**
No. Vinkius hosts the connection, so you can use these tools without managing your own API keys.

**How recent is the HMC complaint data?**
The search_hmc_complaints tool defaults to a 90-day window, but you can adjust this window up to 365 days.

**Can I search for specific buildings?**
Yes. You can use the building ID or address to look up jurisdiction programs, OMO charges, or litigation cases.

**Is the data from official sources?**
Yes. This MCP pulls data from NYC Open Data, including HPD and DOB records.

**Which AI tools can I use with this MCP?**
You can use this with any MCP-compatible client, including Claude, Cursor, and Windsurf.

**Do I need an API key?**
No. NYC Open Data serves all public datasets anonymously over its SODA API (data.cityofnewyork.us). This MCP defines no credentials and needs nothing configured.

**Why do HMC complaint searches use a date window?**
The HPD HMC complaints table is very large, so search_hmc_complaints applies a received-date window by default (90 days back; pass after to shift it) and top_hmc_problem_codes ranks codes over a days window (90 by default, max 365). The other datasets are small and need no window.

**Which borough values do the housing datasets use?**
They differ per dataset: HMC complaints store boroughs in UPPERCASE ("MANHATTAN"), the OMO charge table in title case ("Brooklyn"), and vacate orders use two-letter codes ("BK"). Text filters are case-insensitive partial matches, so "manhattan" works in the HMC table.