Local Politicians Want to Pump Fresh Funds Into NYCHA

New York City Housing Authority

Local politicians want to pump $500 million into NYCHA’s repair process after a report came out Thursday detailing unsafe conditions in five NYCHA housing developments.

The plan aims at redirecting money to the underfunded NYCHA, restoring state aid, beginning an incentives program for private developers, and creating a NYCHA watchdog agency.

In a 19-page report deeming NYCHA the “Worst Landlord in NYC,” State Senator Jeffrey Klein and Council Member Ritchie Torres unveiled the comprehensive plan at a news conference on Thursday, showing a series of photographs that documented various unsafe and unsanitary conditions in the housing developments.

Senator Jeffrey Klein (center) and Councilman Ritchie Torres (third from left) proposed a plan to give $500 million to NYCHA to fix a long backlist of work orders.

“Right now we have a Byzantine system for making repairs,” Klein told reporters.

Klein said employees in his office visited five housing developments, one in each borough chosen at random, and documented the conditions.

Infractions ranged from a basement full of flies that constantly bit a woman’s children and debris from recent fires to unsafe lighting in stairwells and fire exits without easy access.

“To watch these images is to witness the decline of the New York Housing Authority,” said Torres, who is originally from the Throgs Neck Houses in the Bronx. His mother is still a resident there.

NYCHA manages 179,000 apartment units at 334 developments. With 600,000 tenants, nearly the population of Boston, NYCHA is the largest landlord in the city. It is not inspected by the Department of Buildings.

Source: nycitylens.com
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