New York City Housing Authority

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New York City Housing Authority
New York City Housing Authority (logo).svg
Agency overview
Formed1934 (1934)
JurisdictionNew York City
Headquarters250 Broadway, Manhattan, NY
Employees13,000
Agency executives
Key document
Websitenyc.gov/nycha

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) was the first agency in the United States to provide housing for low- and moderate-income residents throughout the five boroughs of New York City.[1] NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program in rental apartments; these communities are often referred to in popular culture as "projects", or "developments". These facilities commonly have large income disparities with their respective surrounding neighborhood or community.

The New York City Housing Authority's mission is to increase opportunities for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers by providing safe, affordable housing and facilitating access to social and community services. More than 400,000 New Yorkers reside in NYCHA's 325 public housing developments across the City's five boroughs. Another 235,000 receive subsidized rental assistance in private homes through the NYCHA-administered Section 8 Leased Housing Program.

List of properties[edit]

NYCHA Map[2]
Main article: List of New York City Housing Authority properties

History[edit]

NYCHA was created in 1934 to help alleviate the housing crisis caused by the Great Depression during Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia’s administration and was the first agency in the United States to provide publicly funded housing.[3][4][1] The agency used the developments to practice slum-clearance and establish model affordable housing for the city. In 1935, NYCHA completed its first development, the First Houses, located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan; the parcel of land the houses were located on were purchased from Vincent Astor and the city used eminent domain to secure the remaining property. However, the construction of the First Houses used existing apartment buildings to renovate which proved too costly.[5][1]

NYCHA's first two "new from the ground up" developments were Harlem River in 1937 and Williamsburg in 1938. Both are noted for their art-deco style of architecture, which are unique in public housing; these developments were segregated based on race with Harlem River being black-only and Williamsburg white-only.[5][1]

The Authority boomed in partnership with Robert Moses after World War II as a part of Moses' plan to clear old tenements and remake New York as a modern city. Moses indicated later in life that he was disappointed at how the public housing system fell into decline and disrepair; the majority of NYCHA developments were built between 1945 and 1965. Unlike most cities, New York depended heavily on city and state funds to build its housing after the Federal Housing Act of 1937 expired and a new bill wasn't agreed upon until the Federal Housing Act of 1949, rather than just the federal government. Most of the postwar developments had over 1,000 apartment units each, and most were built in the modernist, tower-in-the-park style popular at the time. In the 1950s and 1960s, many New Yorkers, including supporters, became more critical of the agency and in response NYCHA introduced a new look that included variations of height, faster elevators, and larger apartments. In 1958, Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. began to shift construction away from megaprojects to smaller sites which retained the street grid and had under 1,000 units.[1]

In 1964, NYCHA ended a policy that held apartments for white tenants in an attempt to integrate the developments. Tenants organized a rent strike in opposition to the policy and the State Commission of Human Rights questioned if the policy was in accordance to the state's laws on discrimination.[6]

In 1995, the New York City Housing Authority Police Department and the New York City Transit Police were merged into the New York City Police Department by NYC Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and continues today as the New York City Police Department Housing Bureau.

Capital needs[edit]

In 2004, NYCHA contracted with the Architectural/Engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade and Douglas to perform a needs assessment survey of all 2500+ properties owned by the agency (excluding FHA Homes, which were inspected by in-house NYCHA personnel in about 2007). In 2005, a report was released detailing the conditions of every aspect and building component of each individual property, based on a scale of 1 to 5 (in this case, 1 being the highest, or best rating, and 5 being the lowest, or poorest rating); this report identified $6.9 billion in needs required to bring the Authority's structures into a state of good repair. In 2011/12, a second needs assessment survey was done by PBQ&D, which identified $16.5 billion in needs. This represented an average of $93,000 per unit, it is anticipated that an upcoming needs assessment contract will reveal capital needs in excess of $25 billion.[7]. The needs assessment survey is divided into five broad categories, which are: Architectural, Mechanical, Electrical, Site, and Apartments. Given the large number of apartment units within NYCHA, the report's findings on apartments are based upon an inspection of 5% of NYCHA's total inventory.

In mid-2007, NYCHA faced a $225 million budget shortfall.[8]

In late 2015, NYCHA announced the formation of the Fund for Public Housing,[9] a nonprofit organization that will seek to raise $200 million over three years to supplement NYCHA's efforts and improve the lives of NYC public housing residents; the Fund received its first donation of $100,000 from the Deutsche Bank in December 2015.[10]

In 2018, a city-wide survey of NYCHA properties found that the organization needs $31.8 billion over five years to address unmet capital repairs including replacing broken elevators, upgrading faulty heating systems and fix run-down kitchens and bathrooms. Despite its needed repairs, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is cutting the agency's budget to encourage NYCHA to rely on partnerships with private property managers while Governor Andrew Cuomo is withholding his multiyear funding of $550 million until a federally required monitor is appointed to oversee the housing authority.[11] Later that year, the de Blasio administration announced a plan, called NYCHA 2.0, to address the capital needs of the agency which includes converting 62,000 NYCHA apartments into Section 8 and bringing in private management to oversee the backlog of repairs for the apartments.[12][13] In 2019, the administration began considering demolishing and rebuilding the Fulton Houses in Chelsea and the Cooper Park Houses in Williamsburg through partnering with private developers.[14][15] Other developers began lobbying the city for air rights from Campos Plaza II, Fulton Houses, and the Ingersoll Houses;[16] the approach of the administration is a turn back to Bloomberg-era initiatives he once felt ignored the concerns of NYCHA residents after failed trial of four buildings with a 50-50 split of market-rate and low-cost housing.[17]

Hurricane Sandy and its impact on NYCHA[edit]

In October, 2012, Hurricane Sandy turned out to be the single most destructive event in the history of the New York City Housing Authority; the storm impacted approximately 10% of NYCHA's developments, which left 400 buildings without power, and 386 buildings without heat and hot water.[18]

In February 2014, NYCHA's Recovery and Resilience Department was created bringing about initial agreements in over $3 billion in funding for over 33 developments by March 2015. In August 2015, the first construction began on Lower East Side V. In December 2015, NYCHA received $3 billion in disaster recovery funding and by December 2016, $201 million of construction was underway. By December 2017, $1.85 billion in contracts were awarded, and construction was underway at 27 developments. Construction at all Sandy-impacted sites are expected to be completed by the end of 2021.[18]

Lawsuits[edit]

Tenant lawsuit[edit]

In February 2018, attorney Jim Walden filed a lawsuit on behalf of 400,000 NYCHA tenants living in squalid conditions; the suit demands that the court appoint an independent monitor to oversee NYCHA because the agency failed to provide tenants with heat and hot water, keep residents safe from lead, involve tenants in policy-making, and hire residents, as required under federal law.[19] In April 2018, under intense pressure from the lawsuit, chairwoman Shola Olatoye resigned.[20]

Federal lawsuit[edit]

On June 11, 2018, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman filed a lawsuit accusing NYCHA of violating health and safety regulations, exposing children to lead paint, and training its workers to deceive inspectors under the oversight of chairwoman Shola Olatoye from 2012 to 2016.[21][22] According to federal prosecutors, deceptions NYCHA workers used included shutting off buildings' water supplies during inspections to hide leaks and building false walls out of plywood to hide dilapidated rooms from inspectors;[21] that day, NYCHA settled the lawsuit by admitting to the allegations, agreeing to spend an additional $1 billion over the next four years, and by agreeing to oversight by a federal monitor.[21][23] In 2019, the federal government reached an agreement with the city to appoint a federal monitor and $2.2 billion spent by the city over the next decade on repair.[24] In February 2019, federal officials chose Bart Schwartz as the NYCHA monitor.[25]

Governance and operations[edit]

NYCHA is a New York state public-benefit corporation organized under the Public Housing Law;[3][26] the NYCHA ("NYCHA Board") consists of seven members, of which the chairman is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the Mayor of New York City, while the others are appointed for three-year terms by the mayor.[27]

The Authority is the largest public housing authority (PHA) in North America. In spite of many problems, it is still considered by experts to be the most successful big-city public housing authority in the country. Whereas most large public housing authorities in the United States (Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, etc.) have demolished their high-rise projects and in most cases replaced them with lower scale housing, New York's continue to be fully occupied. Most of its market-rate housing is also in high-rise buildings.

NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program in rental apartments. However, new applications for Section 8 have not been accepted since December 10, 2009.[28]

New York also maintains a long waiting list for its apartments; because of demand, the Housing Authority in recent years, has selected more "working families" from applicants to diversify the income structure of occupants of its housing, as had been typical of residents who first occupied the facilities.[citation needed] NYCHA's Conventional Public Housing Program has 175,636 apartments (as of 2018) in 325 developments throughout the city.[29]

NYCHA has approximately 13,000 employees serving about 173,946 families and approximately 392,259 authorized residents.[29] Based on the 2010 census, NYCHA's Public Housing represents 8.2% of the city's rental apartments and is home to 4.9% of the city's population. NYCHA residents and Section 8 voucher holders combined occupy 12.4% of the city's rental apartments.[30]

Statistics[edit]

  • 326[31] developments in New York City
  • Staten Island has 10 developments with 4,499 apartments
  • Queens has 22 developments with 17,126 apartments
  • The Bronx has 100 developments with 44,500 apartments
  • Brooklyn has 98 developments with 58,669 apartments
  • Manhattan has 102 developments with 53,890 apartments[30]
  • The Bronzeville, section of Chicago now has the highest concentration of low income public housing in America, following the demolition of a huge 5-mile long tract of public housing stretching along State and Federal on Chicago's South Side. While pre-Plan For Transformation Chicago Housing Authority high-rise developments tended to be much larger and more concentrated than those of the NYCHA, the NYCHA operates several times as many apartments and houses three times as many residents. East Harlem in Manhattan has the second highest concentration of public housing in the nation, closely following Brownsville.
  • The Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, Queens, is now North America's largest housing project with 3,142 apartments, following the demolition of several larger Chicago housing projects, including the Cabrini–Green Homes and the Robert Taylor Homes (whose 4,321 three, four and five bedroom apartments once made it the largest public housing project in the world).[32]
  • The Bronx's largest development is Edenwald Houses in Edenwald with 2,036 apartments.
  • Brooklyn's largest development is Red Hook Houses in Red Hook with 2,878 apartments.
  • Manhattan's largest development is Baruch Houses on the Lower East Side with 2,391 apartments
  • Staten Island's largest development is Stapleton Houses in Stapleton with 693 apartments.[30]
  • 10 developments consisting of FHA Acquired Homes are located in more than one borough and total 200 apartments
  • 42 developments are for seniors only; 15 seniors-only buildings exist within mixed-population developments
  • NYCHA has approximately 9,822 apartments designated for seniors only
  • There also are 7,639 retrofitted apartments for families of persons who are mobility impaired as of September 30, 2007
  • As of April 13, 2017: 14 developments are at least 70 years old; a total of 60 developments are 60 to 69 years old; there are 75 developments 50 to 59 years old; another 89 developments are 40 to 49 years old, and 52 developments are 30 to 39 years old.
  • The combined demographics of all public housing developments in New York City is about 46% Black, 44% Hispanic, 4% White, 5% Asian, and 1% other.[33]
  • NYCHA residents in Chelsea earn significantly less money than the average Chelsea resident and are almost half as likely to have a college degree.[2]

List of chairpersons[edit]

No. Chairperson Term Mayor Previous Position
1. Langdon Post February 17, 1934 – December 1, 1937 Fiorello H. La Guardia U.S. Assistant Federal Relief Administrator
2. Alfred Rheinstein December 17, 1937 – October 9, 1939 Fiorello H. La Guardia Chairman & CEO, Rheinstein Construction Company
3. Gerard Swope December 11, 1939 – January 26, 1942 Fiorello H. La Guardia President, General Electric Company
4. Edmond Borgia Butler May 2, 1942 – July 1, 1947 Fiorello H. La Guardia Professor, Fordham University Law School
5. Thomas Francis Farrell July 1, 1947 – September 15, 1950 William O'Dwyer Chief of Field Operations, The Manhattan Project
6. Philip J. Cruise September 15, 1950 – April 3, 1958 Vincent R. Impellitteri (acting mayor) Assistant Chairman, New York City Housing Authority
7. William Reid April 1958 – December 31, 1965 Robert F. Wagner Jr. Chairman, Hudson and Manhattan Railroad
8. Missing Name January 1966 –
9. Gerald J. Carey 1966 John V. Lindsay General Manager, New York City Housing Authority
10. Walter Edward Washington 1966 – 1967 John V. Lindsay Exec. Dir. National Capital Housing Authority, DC
11. Albert Walsh October 31, 1967 – January 7, 1970 John V. Lindsay Deputy Commissioner, NYS Division Housing & Urban Renewal
12. Simeon Golar January 16, 1970 – May 31, 1973 John V. Lindsay Chairman, NYC Commission on Human Rights
13. Joseph J. Christian 1973 – December 31, 1985 John V. Lindsay, Abraham D. Beame, Edward I. Koch Commissioner of Development, NYC Housing and Development Administration
14. Emanuel P. Popolizio January 4, 1986 – November 1990 Edward I. Koch Chairman, NYC Conciliation and Appeals Board
15. Laura D. Blackburne November 1990 – February 22, 1992 David N. Dinkins President & CEO, Institute for Mediation and Conflict Resolution, NYC
16. Sally B. Hernandez-Pinero February 22, 1992 – January 1994 David N. Dinkins NYC Deputy Mayor for Finance and Economic Development
17. Ruben Franco January 31, 1994 – January 7, 1999 Rudy Giuliani Pres. and General Counsel, Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund
18. John G. Martinez April 19, 1999 – April 1, 2001 Rudy Giuliani First Vice President, Paine Webber Inc.
19. Tino Hernandez April 1, 2001 – December 12, 2008 Rudy Giuliani, Michael R. Bloomberg Commissioner, New York City Department of Juvenile Justice
20. Ricardo Elias Morales December 15, 2008 – May 13, 2009 Michael R. Bloomberg NYCHA General Counsel & Chief Ethics Officer
21. John B. Rhea June 1, 2009 – December 30, 2013 Michael R. Bloomberg Managing Director & Co-Head of Global Consumer/Retail Group, Barclays Capital
22. Shola Olatoye February 8, 2014 – April 30, 2018[34] Bill de Blasio Vice Pres. & NY Market Leader, Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.
* Derrick Cephas (Acting Chair*) May 4, 2018 – May 31, 2018[35] Bill de Blasio Vice Chair of NYCHA Board of Directors
* Stanley Brezenoff (Interim Chair & CEO*) June 1, 2018 – February 15, 2019 Bill de Blasio Interim CEO, NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation
* Kathryn Garcia (Interim Chair & CEO*) February 5, 2019 – Present Bill de Blasio Commissioner, NYC Department of Sanitation (continuing as)
23. Gregory Russ Appointed June 18, 2019, effective August 12, 2019 – Bill de Blasio Executive Director & CEO, Minneapolis Public Housing Authority

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Bloom, Nicholas Dagen; Lasner, Matthew Gordon (2016). Affordable Housing in New York: The People, Places, and Policies That Transformed a City. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691167817.
  2. ^ a b http://www.nyc.gov/html/ceo/downloads/pdf/nns_15.pdf
  3. ^ a b Public Housing Law § 401; "The New York City Housing Authority is hereby constituted and declared to be a body corporate and politic with all the powers, rights and duties set forth in article five of the former state housing law." Municipal Housing Authorities Law (L. 1934, ch. 4), comprising §§ 60–78 of the former State Housing Law (L. 1926, ch. 823, as re-enacted by L. 1927, ch. 35), now the Public Housing Law (L. 1939, ch. 808).
  4. ^ Ferré-Sadurní, Luis (2018-06-25). "The Rise and Fall of New York Public Housing: An Oral History". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  5. ^ a b "History of Poverty & Homelessness in NYC". Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  6. ^ Kihss, Peter (January 27, 1964). "HOUSING POLICY OF CITY CHANGED; Apartments Not Being Held for Integration Purposes". New York Times. Retrieved 2019-07-23.
  7. ^ Citizen's Budget Commission, December, 2017
  8. ^ "Local Elected Leaders Applaud Increased Funding For NYCHA". NY State Senate. 2007-08-17. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  9. ^ "NYCHA - Fund for Public Housing". www1.nyc.gov. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  10. ^ Bellafante, Ginia (2016-02-11). "Public Housing, Private Donors". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  11. ^ Goldenberg, Sally. "At $31.8B, NYCHA's unmet capital needs dwarf government allocations". Politico PRO. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  12. ^ "City Looks to Private Sector to Help NYCHA Repair Crisis". www.ny1.com. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  13. ^ "NYCHA 2.0" (PDF).
  14. ^ Goldenberg, Sally. "City considers demolishing and rebuilding 2 NYCHA sites". Politico PRO. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  15. ^ Goldenberg, Sally. "City quietly pauses plans for private development at Brooklyn NYCHA site". Politico PRO. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  16. ^ "Developers eye NYCHA's air rights". PincusCo. 2019-05-01. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  17. ^ Goldenberg, Sally. "With NYCHA in dire straits, de Blasio rolls out new plan with more market-rate development". Politico PRO. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  18. ^ a b "Sandy Recovery History - NYCHA". www1.nyc.gov. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  19. ^ Mays, Jeffery C. (2018-02-27). "Tenants Sue New York City Housing Authority: 'We Have Let Other People Speak for Us for Too Long'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-03-19.
  20. ^ Goodman, J. David (2018-04-09). "Embattled Housing Authority Chief in New York City Is Resigning". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  21. ^ a b c Weiser, Benjamin; Goodman, J. David (11 June 2018). "New York City Housing Authority, Accused of Endangering Residents, Agrees to Oversight". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  22. ^ Ferré-Sadurní, Luis; Goodman, J. David (2018-05-31). "New York Public Housing Set to Get Federal Monitor and $1 Billion in Repairs". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  23. ^ Press Release (11 June 2018). "Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Settlement With NYCHA and NYC To Fundamentally Reform NYCHA Through the Appointment Of a Federal Monitor and the Payment By NYC Of $1.2 Billion Of Additional Capital Money Over the Next Five Years". United States Department of Justice. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  24. ^ Weiser, Benjamin; Ferré-Sadurní, Luis; Thrush, Glenn; Goodman, J. David (2019-01-31). "De Blasio Cedes Further Control of Nycha but Avoids Federal Takeover". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  25. ^ Smith, Greg B. (2019-02-21). "New NYCHA Monitor's Strange Political Bedfellows". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  26. ^ Bass v. City of New York, 38 AD2d 407 (2nd Dept 1972).
  27. ^ Public Housing Law § 402(3)
  28. ^ http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycha/html/section8/applicant-info.shtml
  29. ^ a b "NYCHA 2018 FACT SHEET" (PDF).
  30. ^ a b c "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-06-15. Retrieved 2006-04-17.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  31. ^ NYCHA 2017 Fact Sheet
  32. ^ Barry, Dan. "Don't Tell Him the Projects Are Hopeless", The New York Times, March 12, 2005. Accessed July 16, 2008. "UP, up, up it rises, this elevator redolent of urine, groaning toward the rooftop of another tired building in the Queensbridge public housing development, the largest in Queens, in New York, in North America."
  33. ^ http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycha/downloads/pdf/res_data.pdf
  34. ^ Cite error: The named reference :02 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  35. ^ E-mail to NYCHA Employees from General Manager - May 4, 2018

External links[edit]

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