NYCHA woes grow as repair bill soars to a whopping $78 billion

 The hole just keeps getting deeper.

The New York City Housing Authority’s repair bill has exploded to more than $78 billion — nearly double the $45 billion projected in 2017 — mostly due to surging construction costs and required upgrades.

The dramatic jump in the repair bill – more than $33 billion – has come despite five years of stymied efforts by two mayoral administrations – Mayor Adams and his predecessor, Bill de Blasio – to stabilize the finances at NYCHA, the Big Apple’s single biggest landlord with more than 160,000 apartments and spans across the 274 complexes it owns and operates.

“Our administration has been clear since day one that NYCHA residents deserve the same quality of life as every New Yorker, but there is no question the needs at NYCHA are great,” said Hizzoner.

He added: “[O]nly the federal government can provide the level of funding needed to overcome decades of disinvestment in the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who call public housing home.”

The nation’s largest public housing authority, has been rocked with scandals over the years resulting in a federal monitor set up since 2019 that sets hard-and-fast deadlines for NYCHA to fix problems involving lead paint, mold, rats, broken elevators, heating outages, non-functioning boilers, and leaky pipes.

The dramatic jump in the repair bill, more than $33 billion, has come despite 5 years of stymied efforts by two mayoral administrations.

Michael Dalton

A report by the city Comptroller last year found the agency even struggles to keep its doors and locks in working order.

Nearly three-quarters — $60 billion — of the repairs are needed immediately, the document shows. In 2017, the amount of work needed immediately was $31.8 billion.

“Back then we urged action before it ballooned before NYCHA and the city’s ability to keep up,” said Sean Campion, the top housing expert at the Citizens Budget Commission.

“Right now, we’re seeing the price of inaction and delays. The conditions are deteriorating faster than NYCHA’s ability to keep up with them.”

Since 2019, NYCHA has had hard-and-fast deadlines to fix problems involving lead paint, mold, rats, broken elevators, heating outages, non-functioning boilers, and leaky pipes.

Stephen Yang

Campion said that the new report from NYCHA showed that its buildings were now falling apart faster than the CBC’s worst case scenario back then.

Building conditions at three West Side housing projects had deteriorated so much that the consortium of private companies hired to renovate and manage the complex under a new program aimed at injecting funds into NYCHA determined it would be cheaper to tear the complex down and start from scratch.

Estimates based on the 2017 federally-mandated repair report originally projected that it would cost $366 million to repair the Fulton Houses and Chelsea Elliot Houses, Campion said.

This latest report shows the bill for the two developments had exploded to $836 million in work needed immediately.

NYCHA, the companies and the tenants who live at the developments eventually struck a deal that was announced last month that will tear down both projects and replace them with new towers funded by building thousands of market-rate units alongside replacements for all of the public housing tenants.

https://nypost.com/2023/07/12/nycha-woes-grow-as-repair-bill-soars-to-a-whopping-78-billion-new-audit-finds/