Were Are the Council Hearing On NYCHA Repairs Sales of Land?
NYCHA Wastes Sandy Repair Funds On Consultants, Hotels and Limos
Council Blast Mayor for Wasting Sandy Funds Where Was the Council Oversight When the Funds Were Being Wasted?
Mayor de Blasioadmits he can't fulfill promise to complete construction on thousands of homesravaged by Hurricane Sandy before end of year (NYDN) * Lawmakers blast de Blasio officials over botched Sandy project (NYP) “I honestly don’t know how you can sit here with a straight face after blowing billions of dollars and ask the City Council for more money when you can’t even meet your own deadlines,” Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens) told a panel of administration officials at a City Hall hearing. “We’re talking about people who use their positions of trust as elected officials to guarantee that a certain result occurred, corruptly, in exchange for thiRobin Levine, a spokeswoman for Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, slammed the administration for trying to shift the $500 million without properly notifying the council, which approves the city budget each year.ngs of value.” * de Blasioadmits he can't fulfill promise to complete construction on thousands of homesravaged by Hurricane Sandy before end of year (NYDN) Mayor admits homes damaged by Sandy won't be rebuilt by end of 2016 as promised * * State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott released a report saying the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities was saddled with “systemic mismanagement” that failed to stop caregivers from stealing from the disabled, the Times Union reports. * De Blasio’s $500 million Sandy-rebuilding fiasco (NYP) * What Bill didn’t build: De Blasio admits the post-Sandy promises fall short(NYDN Ed)
Sandy Rebuild Fund Broke Repairs Will Not Finished by End of the Year As the Mayor Promised
Anna Sanders @AnnaESanders De Blasio has now criticized both the previous administration for current Build it Back delays, as well as homeowners who program helps.
Fed Investigation of NYCHA Goes Beyond Led Paint
As deB Pushes Luxury Housing On Public Housing Land He Never Read His Report How Gentrification Hurts NYCHA Tenants
How de Blasio's Flip Flop Attempt to Buy Off NYCHA Tenants Opposition to Luxury Housing Failed
de Blasio is Also Throwing Money At His Rivington Nursing Home Scandal to Make Up for the Close Facility
Health Care Facility to Replace About Half of RivingtonHouse Beds: Mayor (DNAINFO)
EDI @EDI_NYC 31m31 minutes ago Mayor @BilldeBlasio and @CM_MargaretChin using "Senior Housing" and "Affordable Housing" as catch phrases to cover-up scandal & incompetence
EDI @EDI_NYC 31m31 minutes ago Mayor @BilldeBlasio and @CM_MargaretChin using "Senior Housing" and "Affordable Housing" as catch phrases to cover-up scandal & incompetence
Sal Albanese @SalAlbaneseNYC Thank goodness NYC's economy is generating lots of tax revenue bc DEB is blowing through cash like a drunken sailor
Corruption Fighter Bharara Tries to Save NYC's Public Housing That the Pols Have Failed
Tuesday NYCHA union boss wants workers tested for lead after feds launch health probe (NYDN)*
Teamsters Local 237 President Greg Floyd wrote to NYCHA Chairwoman
Shola Olatoye and requested “immediate testing” of employees’ blood-lead
levels after the feds began probing lead exposure at NYCHA
developments, the Daily News reports * Despite reports and concerns of violence, the NYPD has no plans to step up patrols at homeless shelters.
Praying for Preet:Corruption crusader is now housing hero (NYDN
Ed) Answering the prayers of New Yorkers damned to live in the city
Housing Authority’s hazardously crumbling complexes, U.S. Attorney Preet
Bharara now swoops to the rescue wearing a court order to city health
officials as his cape. Can even the superpowers of the super-prosecutor
who busted Albany corruption and shook up Rikers Island’s
houses of horror save accursed NYCHA from doom? Maybe not — but
Bharara’s intervention sure as hell can’t hurt the already hurting. His
team is investigating the possibility that NYCHA officials gave false
assurances to the federal government about maintenance conditions in its
nearly 178,000 apartments in exchange for funds. Golly, where to begin?
With epidemic leaks, mold, rot, vermin, peeling paint, water damage and
other apartment horrors routinely reported by residents: Bharara sought
by court order city Department of Health records concerning all of the
above at NYCHA and in the city’s homeless shelters.
That
includes addresses where children have been found to have elevated
blood-lead levels, associated with brain impairment — an until-now
hidden toll of NYCHA’s savage neglect. City health officials are now
supplying the requested records. Mayor de Blasio, all but in charge of
the nominally independent NYCHA, should assume that, as with Rikers,
prying Preet will dig up the goods to force the city into a legal
settlement to cure ills forever thought incurable. Long-suffering NYCHA
residents can throw in another prayer, that Bharara will force a break
in absurd maintenance-worker union rules that tie chairwoman Shola
Olatoye’s hands as she scrambles to patch up conditions to keep
apartments minimally livable.*
New York City Housing Authority CEO Shola Olatoye said the federal
government began an inquiry late last year that is examining “every
facet of our operations,” for which NYCHA has handed over more than 400
million records, the Times reports:
NYCHA Just Got Worse With Bharara Lead Paint Investigation and Homeless Shelter Investigation
Saturday U.S. Inquiry Into New York’s Housing Authority Is ‘Very Expansive,’ Its Chief Says (NYT)Shola
Olatoye said the Justice Department had been looking at “every facet”
of the agency’s operations amid a review of federal funds for health and
safety problems.
New York City officials
have turned over millions of documents to the federal prosecutors
conducting an investigation into health and safety conditions at NYCHA
buildings and at homeless shelters, The Wall Street Journal reports: * *
Cuomo slammed the city homeless shelter system as "deplorable" and
accused de Blasio's administration of mismanaging it after revelations
of out of control violence at shelters, the Daily News reports: * Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi:
“The city has done good work, but we are still in a housing crisis.
Millions of city residents are struggling to pay rent. They don’t need
political calculations and bureaucratic delays—they need new affordable
housing. The governor needs to understand that.”
U.S. Investigating Elevated Blood Lead Levels in New York’s Public Housing (NYT) The
inquiry into environmental health and safety conditions was disclosed
by the office of Preet Bharara in filings in federal court in Manhattan. * Bharara investiages NYC Housing Authority’s use of lead paint (NYP)
US Attorney Preet Bharara is taking aim at the New York City Housing
Authority — probing whether the beleaguered agency lied about its use of
lead paint, new court papers reveal. Last November, the government
asked the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in a 10-page
civil investigative demand for information “about individuals with
elevated blood-lead levels in NYCHA public housing and documents
reflecting complaints of unsafe, unsanitary or unhealthful conditions.”
It also sought a list of all property addresses where residents had high
blood-lead levels, details on whether any environmental investigation
was performed and all documents relating to building complaints. The
city’s Department of Homeless Services is being probed for the same
allegations under the federal False Claims Act, according to documents.
But the Health Department balked at the government’s request for
information, saying it was barred by state law from providing details
relating to personal medical information. “However, [the Health
Department] has agreed to produce this information upon entry of the
enclosed court order, and it does not oppose the United States’
application for such an order,” prosecutors wrote in its filing that
asked a judge to green-light the release of information. Federal court
Judge Deborah Batts signed the order. Lead is toxic to humans, causing
brain damage and other maladies, and has been banned from household
paint since 1978.* U.S. Attorney investigating claims of unhealthy conditions at NYCHA projects, city homeless shelters (NYDN) * Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are
conducting a sweeping investigation of environmental health and safety
conditions, including cases of elevated blood lead levels, in public
housing and homeless shelters, The NewYork Times writes: * De Blasio says city will cooperate with federal NYCHA probe * Feds investigating conditions in @NYCHA, shelters Feds investigating conditions in @NYCHA, shelters (PoliticoNY) * 'DOUBLE PROBLEM' Gov. Cuomo accuses Mayor de Blasio administration of mismanaging homeless shelter system *NYDN) * Union Urges City to Equip Homeless Shelter Officers with Weapons (NY1)
NYCHA Unhealthy Living Conditions No Repairs Melt Down Continues Another deB Broken Campaign Promise
The Broken Campaign Promise to Keep LICH Hospital Open
100,000+ NYCHA Ghost Tenant Means the Affordable Housing Crisis Much Worse
The Ghost Tenants of New York City Brooklyn . The two-bedroom in Manhattan is shabby in some ways, but the rent can’t be beat: less than $1,000 a month for a safe, transit-rich neighborhood with plenty of shopping. The apartment is less than 10 minutes from the nearest subway stop, and the commute to her office is less than half an hour. There are a couple downsides. For one Gigi, who is 33, lives with her parents and her sister, who has to sleep in the living room. And the whole arrangement is illegal. Gigi’s family lives in the New York City Housing Authority’s Amsterdam Houses, a public housing complex a few blocks from Lincoln Center , Trump Tower , and Central Park . Her parents are the only official tenants. That makes Gigi and her sister what housing wonks sometimes call “ghost tenants,” or people living in public housing “off lease.” Their situation isn’t uncommon. Although 400,000 people officially live in New York City ’s traditional public housing units, it’s estimated that as many as 100,000 to 200,000 more reside there secretly. That the population living in New York City ’s publicly owned housing units could be 25 to 50 percent larger than the official count provides stark evidence of how severe the city’s affordable housing crisis has become. * Klein: NYC Public Housing Is Crumbling (YNN) * Local Officials Pushing for More Public Housing Funding After Report on Living Conditions (NY1)
Making Public Housing Into A Charity Case Is Another Example How the Mayor's Several Plans to Fix NYCHA Have Failed
Public Housing, Private Donors(NYT) Late last fall, Rasmia Kirmani-Frye, a lapsed doctoral student in urban policy and an executive at the New York City Housing Authority, gave a talk in Chicago, floating the notion that public housing, as if it were a museum or a prep school, should present itself as a philanthropic cause. Despite antipathy or ignorance about housing projects among the affluent, the de Blasio administration argues that the city’s Housing Authority, with 328 developments containing more than 600,000 people — a population larger than Atlanta’s — could become an attractive beneficiary of charitable money. To be overseen by Ms. Kirmani-Frye, a newly created nonprofit,the Fund for Public Housing, seeks to raise $200 million over the next three years. It received its first check, from Deutsche Bank for $100,000, in December.
Is Selling Off NYCHA Land the Only Way to Save Affordable Housing
Could Building on NYCHA Land Save de Blasio’s Affordable Housing Plan? (NYO) On January 11, Mayor Bill de Blasio held a press conference in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn to celebrate laying the groundwork to build or preserve 40,000 below-market rate apartments in his first two years of office—putting him on schedule to hit his goal of seeing 200,000 such units constructed or maintained by 2024. At the time, Mr. de Blasio would not even consider the possibility that the 421a tax credit for developers, which incentivizes creation of affordable housing, might expire on January 15. Construction unions and the real estate industry had been locked in a stalemate for six months over new prevailing wage standards to be written into the abatement, ever since Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the State Legislaturedecided in June that the two sides would have to come to a deal on pay floors, or see the exemption wither away. Vicki Been, commissioner of the City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, would admit that many of construction starts in 2015 were a result of real estate interests making a run on the bank before the break could disappear. “We did certainly see a rise in building permits resulting undoubtedly from the desire to get in the ground before 421a,” she told reporters. Sure enough, 421a expired. And the private housing market Mr. de Blasio has counted on to build his affordable apartments is in disarray.
CM Torres a Demands NYCHA Secret Private Developers Building Plan
Wright and Union Demands A State Takeover of the NYCHA
Councilman accuses NYCHA of keeping secrets about apartment development plan(NYDN) NYCHA is keeping too many secrets about the plan to raise money by letting private developers build apartments on its land, a city councilman charged. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx), who chairs the Council Public Housing Committee, wrote a letter to NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye on Monday demanding she answer more questions about the development plan. “I have serious concerns about the slow and secretive manner in which details of the plan are being unveiled. There is no defensible reason for withholding information from either the general public or their elected officials,” Torres wrote. NYCHA says its $300 million to $600 million projection is based on a 10-year timeline, using real estate market studies, and it has held sessions to inform residents about the plans.*
More on the NYCHA
Councilman accuses NYCHA of keeping secrets about apartment development plan(NYDN) NYCHA is keeping too many secrets about the plan to raise money by letting private developers build apartments on its land, a city councilman charged. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx), who chairs the Council Public Housing Committee, wrote a letter to NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye on Monday demanding she answer more questions about the development plan. “I have serious concerns about the slow and secretive manner in which details of the plan are being unveiled. There is no defensible reason for withholding information from either the general public or their elected officials,” Torres wrote. NYCHA says its $300 million to $600 million projection is based on a 10-year timeline, using real estate market studies, and it has held sessions to inform residents about the plans.*
“NYCHA will be two cities,” one woman lamented, recalling the egalitarian rhetoric of the mayor’s 2013 campaign
NYCHA Dumpsters A Half A Million In Un-Used Parts
Why Not Hire Some Unemployed NYCHA Tenants An Allow Them to Sell It On Ebay
NYCHA throws out$550G in new supplies that were bought over the years but deemed useless (NYDN) The city Housing Authority is doing some winter housecleaning — throwing out hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of brand-new supplies, the Daily News has learned. In the past few weeks, NYCHA workers have chucked out $550,000 in taxpayer-purchased appliance parts, plumbing fixtures, drapery rods and a host of other items destined for recycling centers or landfills. This week, The News found a dumpster in the loading bay of a Long Island City , Queens , NYCHA warehouse filled to overflowing with unopened boxes of refrigerator parts. Another dumpster was filled to the brim with thousands of brand-new, shiny, stainless steel oven parts. Sources said the dumpster was carted off to a recycling firm that paid about $50 for the entire bin. NYCHA, meanwhile, paid $350 to rent the bin, sources told The News.*
NYCHA Cuts Off the Heat At Night
Public Advocate Letitia James and Legal Services of NYC to file a lawsuit to direct NYCHA follow the law and turn on the heat.
Internal email shows NYCHA may have deliberately kept tenants in the cold to save money (NYDN) When the temperature drops all the way to a bone-chilling 21 degrees overnight and the heater isn’t functioning, the city Housing Authority has a message for tenants: Deal with it. According to an internal email from a top NYCHA official, the authority’s policy is to shut down boilers from 10 p.m. til 6 a.m. to save money — as long as the temperature outside is higher than 20 degrees. What if it’s cold enough outside to form icicles? The message appears to be, break out the quilts and furry slippers. When the temperature drops all the way to a bone-chilling 21 degrees overnight and the heater isn’t functioning, the city Housing Authority has a message for tenants: Deal with it. According to an internal email from a top NYCHA official, the authority’s policy is to shut down boilers from 10 p.m. til 6 a.m. to save money — as long as the temperature outside is higher than 20 degrees. What if it’s cold enough outside to form icicles? The message appears to be, break out the quilts and furry slippers. The chilly email is part of a lawsuit set to be filed Tuesday by Public Advocate Letitia James and Legal Services of NYC demanding that NYCHA follow the law and turn on the heat. “NYCHA’s internal communications has confirmed that this failure to provide adequate heat is intentional and the result of explicit NYCHA heating policy decisions,” the suit alleges. “NYCHA’s internal communications has confirmed that this failure to provide adequate heat is intentional and the result of explicit NYCHA heating policy decisions,” the suit alleges. The email is dated Nov. 25, after tenants in Douglass Houses in upper Manhattan complained about no heat the night before, when the temperatures dropped to 30 degrees. After Legal Services notified Harley Diamond, assistant chief of the NYCHA law department’s landlord and tenant division, Diamond forwarded an explanation from Robert Knapp, director of NYCHA’s heat management services department. Knapp wrote, “Harley, if the residents are referring to the heat being shut down at night. NYCHA official policy and (Department of Health) requirement is heat shut off between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. when the outside temps are above 20 degrees. When the outside temperature falls below 20 degrees, heat is given through the night.”* Registered sex offenders aren’t allowed to live in public housing – but at NYCHA, they’ve managed to move right in, a stunning report to be released today found.*Public Housing Not Ready For Another Hurricane Sandy, New Audit Claims (NYO) Another natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy could leave nearly half a million people living in New York City Housing Authority developments at “extreme risk,” a new study from Comptroller Scott Stringer alleges.* NYCHA counsel, testifying now, says NYCHA's "Most Wanted List" is coming back but it'll have a different name. Name is TBD, though * More than sixty members of the clergy in New York City are endorsing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s effort to rezone parts of the city to build more housing and require developers to include affordable units, the Observer reports: * A federal judge, fed up with NYCHA’s inability to abate toxic mold in its aging apartments, has agreed to appoint a special monitor to enforce a two-year-old agreement to fix the problem, the Daily News writes:* * Elected officials are demanding to know why a top NYCHA official said boilers are turned off overnight even when the temperature drops to 21 degrees, after the policy came to the attention of officials last month, the Daily News writes:
Crime Still Growing At NYCHA Despite de Blasio Plan to Improve Security
NYCHA Crime Up and the Mayor Cuts and Paste News Policy
NYCHA moves to permanently exclude criminal tenants (NYDN) * BLAZ BAN: Mayor de Blasio wants to make it easier to evict criminals who terrorize residents from NYCHA housing (NYDN) * EXCLUSIVE: Mayor de Blasio wants to make it easier to evict and exclude criminals – who terrorize residents – from NYCHA apartments (NYDN) As crime spiked across the authority’s 328 developments and wreaked havoc in surrounding neighborhoods, the city dropped the ball on doing something about the perps next door — and the mayor is now vowing to fix the problem. Mayor de Blasio’s spokeswoman Karen Hinton told The News Saturday the mayor has ordered a total overhaul of the entire referral process to make it faster and easier for NYCHA to evict or exclude residents who are committing crimes on authority properties. The number of eviction cases commenced by NYCHA against criminal tenants dropped 40% from 1,581 in 2011 to 942 last year — and it’s on pace to stay the same this year. The number of actual evictions dropped from 172 in 2009 to 45 last year. As of mid-October this year there have only been 20. Meanwhile, crime — including shootings, murders, assaults and robbery — jumped 31% at NYCHA projects from 2009 through 2013, far outpacing a 3% rise citywide. It dropped off slightly in 2014, but climbed 11% in the last month. NYCHA can also permanently exclude non-tenants of record who live in NYCHA apartments. Exclusions rose this year to 415 from 344 last year, but are still way down from 619 in 2010.
Gentrification Another Factor Killing Public Housing
de Blasio What Gentrification: Never saw his report that found gentrification doesn’t benefit NYCHA tenants
De Blasio hasn’t read a $250,000 study his administration paid for that found NYCHA tenants don’t reap the benefits of gentrification, but made clear he’s still dedicated to his plan to put up expensive market-rate apartments on NYCHA land, the Daily News reports: * Nevertheless, on Monday — after the Daily News uncovered the report, “The Effects of Neighborhood Change on NYCHA Residents” — he made clear he’s full steam ahead with the plan to put up expensive market-rate apartments on NYCHA land. “I haven’t seen the report, but I can say for sure we believe that the right kind of development on NYCHA sites will create more affordable housing for neighborhood residents,” de Blasio said.* NYCHA residents see little benefit from gentrification in their neighborhoods, report shows (NYDN) The city hired five NYCHA residents to work as urban “interpreters” who gathered information for a $250,000 report that reached a conclusion most New Yorkers already accept as true: gentrification doesn't help the poor.* .@BilldeBlasio promotes #EastNewYork rezoning plan to skeptical locals * Anti-white symbol used in flier against Bronx gentrification(NYP)
de Blasio Has No Plan to Keep Crime Down in NYCHA BuildingJust Reacts to the Headlines
EXCLUSIVE: Mayor de Blasio wants to make it easier to evict and exclude criminals – who terrorize residents – from NYCHA apartments (NYDN) As crime spiked across the authority’s 328 developments and wreaked havoc in surrounding neighborhoods, the city dropped the ball on doing something about the perps next door — and the mayor is now vowing to fix the problem. Mayor de Blasio’s spokeswoman Karen Hinton told The News Saturday the mayor has ordered a total overhaul of the entire referral process to make it faster and easier for NYCHA to evict or exclude residents who are committing crimes on authority properties. The number of eviction cases commenced by NYCHA against criminal tenants dropped 40% from 1,581 in 2011 to 942 last year — and it’s on pace to stay the same this year. The number of actual evictions dropped from 172 in 2009 to 45 last year. As of mid-October this year there have only been 20. Meanwhile, crime — including shootings, murders, assaults and robbery — jumped 31% at NYCHA projects from 2009 through 2013, far outpacing a 3% rise citywide. It dropped off slightly in 2014, but climbed 11% in the last month. NYCHA can also permanently exclude non-tenants of record who live in NYCHA apartments. Exclusions rose this year to 415 from 344 last year, but are still way down from 619 in 2010. Tyrone Howard had been convicted repeatedly of dealing drugs out of the East River Houses, but he would do his time and then return to his old stomping grounds to sell more drugs.* Mayor's policy on policing has increased shootings inviolent neighborhoods (commentary) via siadvance
As Controls the Housing Message to Target the Seniors in Rent Regulated Apts Who Make Up A Large % of the City Voters
Blasio Uses Tax Payer $ To Campaign For Re-Election
The Post writes that the $1 million advertising campaign from de Blasio’s administration “alerting” citizens to the rent freeze passed in June is really just a taxpayer-funded campaign tool for the mayor
De Blasio’s $1M ad blitz part of re-election campaign: landlords (NYP) A de Blasio administration plan to spend $1 million in taxpayer dollars on ads touting the Rent Guidelines Board’s June decision to freeze regulated rents is merely an ad campaign for his expected 2017 re-election bid, the city’s largest landlords’ group charged Friday. “Once again, de Blasio is choosing self-serving politics over sound policies. By promoting and owning the rent freeze, the mayor has stripped away any pretense that the RGB is an independent board that bases its decisions on actual data and analysis,” said Joseph Strasburg, president of the Rent Stabilization Association, which represents 25,000 landlords. Both he and Frank Ricci, the group’s director of government affairs, also said the $1 million could be put to better use, such as housing the homeless and providing rent subsidies to those who need it most. Bill de Blasio'scity-funded happy talk (NYDN) Such information is generally the stuff of public service ads that, for example, advise people to stop smoking, engage in safe sex and eat their vegetables. De Blasio’s ads are in another realm. Although the mayor’s name appears only in tiny type, the PR campaign has the character of spending public money to echo de Blasio’s political message. He ought to think twice before doing it again and to avoid going over the top with an experience-defying whopper on the order of telling New Yorkers that they are snug in their nabes.* Rent Freeze Awareness Ads Being Rolled Out Across City (NY1) * $1 million in taxpayer money for de Blasio’s re-election bid (NYP Ed) Bad enough that Mayor de Blasio wields a nonprofit slush fund, the Campaign for One New York, to tout his achievements using millions raised from folks trying to win political favors from him. Now he’s spending $1 million in taxpayer funds to promote himself as the tenants’ champion. And the ad campaign happens to coincide with another unprecedented event: de Blasio’s first-ever town-hall forum — devoted to “rent security and tenant protection.” This is no public service; it’s an early ad campaign for the mayor’s re-election — and an effort to rig a town-hall meeting that makes him look good. If the mayor insists on packing one board to freeze rents, depriving landlords of the revenue they need to pay rising costs, can’t it at least do the same with the boards that assess those costs — like water rates and property taxes — and freeze them, too? He could — but there’s no votes in helping landlords. To get action, they probably need to give to his slush fund. * The Daily News also knocked de Blasio for the “warm and fuzzy” publicity campaign touting the rent freeze, noting that he promised to deliver for tenants despite the rent board supposedly being an independent entity: Charter Attack Ads Against de Blasio Add to the Local TV Take Charter school advocacy group Families for Excellent Schools is attacking de Blasio in a television ad for the second time in just a few weeks, this time by targeting his K-12 education agenda.* City to Spend $1 Million on Ads Promoting Rent Freeze on Stabilized Units (NYT) The advertising campaign is timed to coincide with the first town hall-style meeting that Mayor Bill de Blasio has held since being elected.
True News Called Campaign Promises During the 2013 Fiction and The Press Failure to Expose Candidates Spin and Lies
de Blasio's Housing Realities vs 2013 Campaign Promises
Nicole Gelinas writes in the Post that de Blasio’s housing plan is similar to his predecessor Michael Bloomberg’s in its focus on middle-class homes because reality does not support new housing for the poor in the city
But how affordable? Subsidized developers must set aside a quarter of their apartments for families of three making an average of $46,620, or a third of their apartments for families making $62,150 (the city will decide the mix). The city may allow for a third option, allowing developers who don’t want subsidies to set aside 30 percent of units to people making an average of $93,240. As advocates for the poor have delicately pointed out, this isn’t poor. The Daily News Continues the Fiction From the 2013 Campaign The Daily News writes that with de Blasio taking a gamblethat he has got the economics right in his affordable housing plan, “the least the City Council can do is work with him”
More Housing Authority Corruption
Raymond Ribeiro, executive vice president for capital projects at NYCHA, who was in charge of billions of dollars of building upgrades, was abruptly suspended from his job amid a probe by the city Department of Investigation, the Daily News reports: * Comptroller Wants NYCHA Spending to Go Through HisOffice’s Online System (NYO) * NYCHA’s Effort to Shed Light on Operations Reveals Hundreds of Apartments Without Gas (NY1)
Wyckoff Tenants The Beginning of the the Sell Off of Public Housing
NYCHA Tenants FearThey'll Lose Homes If Luxury Apartments Are Built On Grounds (Gothamist) After last week's announcement from the city that around 1,000 new apartments will be built on existing NYCHA public housing land—Wyckoff Gardens in Boerum Hill and Holmes Towers on the Upper East Side—residents are worried they'll be pushed out. "How are you going to have people here paying $200, $300 rent, then you’ve got tenants in a brand new building paying $1,500, $2,000?” one tenant at Wyckoff Gardens told the Daily News. "I think they’re trying to force us out." Residents at Wyckoff and Holmes have been getting robo-calls from Olatoye, stating the authority would "have the opportunity to build new housing that will bring additional revenue for repairs and capital improvements in your development". These calls, without details of the developments, "confused and frightened tenants", according to Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. "You can't do robo-calls on a plan nobody understands," Brewer said. NYCHA tenants are already feeling the pressure of the impending apartments. "With the market rate income, what's going to be happening to a neighborhood that's already stressed?" asked Beverly Corbin, a 61-year-old longtime resident of Wyckoff Gardens
"The people who are high income, they're not going to be shopping at the local bodega. We already lost a Chinese restaurant and a laundromat." Developers will be allowed to buy or take out 99-year leases on the spaces—which include the "underutilized" parking lots in Wyckoff Gardens and a playground at Holmes Towers New York City elected officials said the city Housing Authority must start opening up its contracts and putting them on Checkbook NYC, after construction at one Harlem development caused rampant leaks, the Daily News reports: * Open house atNYCHA (NYDN Ed) In August, the Daily News chronicled the miseries of tenants in Harlem’s King Towers King Towers
DISPLACED FEARS: Public housing tenants fear de Blasio's plan for pricey rentals will force them out (NYDN)
NYCHA Building: Enter At Your Own Risk
City: Murder victim should have known ‘risks’ of public housing (NYP) The family of a college student murdered at her East Harlem housing project doesn’t deserve a dime from the city — because she should have known the “risks” of being on the dangerous grounds, city lawyers claim in court papers. “I can’t believe they’re saying she’s responsible for her murder,” Olivia Brown’s mother, Crystal , told The Post Friday. “Everybody has a right to be safe in their home. Why wasn’t my daughter safe? Because we’re poor and live in public housing?” Seeking a dismissal of the mother’s wrongful-death lawsuit, lawyers for the New York City Housing Authority argued Olivia’s 2013 shooting at the Lincoln Houses, allegedly by a trespasser, was “spontaneous” and “unavoidable.”“All the risks, hazards and dangers were open, obvious and apparent to [Brown] and said risks, hazards and dangers were openly and voluntarily assumed by [Brown],” said the documents, filed Thursday. Crystal Brown sued NYCHA last year, claiming a lack of security allowed vagrant Michele “Mohawk” Graham to roam the grounds before she fatally shot Olivia, 23, after an argument.
Public Housing Damage Control
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio defended his plans to build market rate housing on land owned by the NYCHA, saying his administration’s proposal is markedly different from one advanced by his predecessor that failed to gain traction amid criticism from public housing residents. * The mayor launched a $300 million project to replace crumbling roofs at NYCHA developments – aiming to get to the root of rampant problems with leaks and mold.
Poor Audits and Results In NYCHA Repairs
Agency assigned to track use of $100 million for NYCHA repairs is 'weak' and 'lacking,' audit finds (NYDN) The state agency tasked with saying how NYCHA will get to use $100 million set aside for repairs has had past problems tracking money sent to the troubled authority, an audit charges. State Controller Thomas DiNapoli found the state Division of Housing & Community Renewal’s recent oversight of NYCHA repair money was “weak” and “lacking.” Auditors found the housing division signed off on $6.8 million for a NYCHA contractor with little documentation and lost track of which NYCHA projects were actually complete. * The Daily News writes that it is time for politicians tostop passing the buck on fixing NYCHA’s buildings and the mayor and governor must work together to replace time- and weather-worn roofs:
NYCHA Race to the Bottom
STILL BROKEN: NYCHA misreported repair numbers, closing thousands of tickets while leaving problems unfixed, audit reveals (NYDN) * The Daily News calls on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to show that he cares about improving NYCHA housing, starting with an audit by the city comptroller, launching fast-track overhauls and responding quickly to mold and water problems: * Mark-Viverito Vouches for NYCHA Head Amid ‘Ridiculous’Resignation Calls (NYO) Fix Payment System New York Comptroller Faults Payment System in 39 City Agencies (NYT) Scott M. Stringer, New York City ’s comptroller, said misuse of an arcane system allowed agencies to circumvent contract regulations and restricted oversight of vendors with integrity and performance issues. * NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer is recommending investing in technology to track repairs in the city’s public housing similar to the CompStat program that the Police Department uses to map and respond to crime. The proposal came following an audit by his office that found many repairs in public housing were still being made at a glacial pace, if at all. * NYCHA misreported repair numbers, closing thousands of tickets while leaving problems unfixed: audit (NYDN) * The Daily News writes that “statistical manipulations” will not help de Blasio now or in election season, and notes that New York City Housing Authority residents deserve honest accounting from the city: * MAYOR AND LANDLORD: Bill de Blasio must take ownership of Housing Authority fix (NYDN) * STILL BROKEN: NYCHA misreported repair numbers, closing thousands of tickets while leaving problems unfixed, audit reveals (NYDN) * Short on cash, H.H.C. considers seasonal borrowing (Capital) * Breukelen Houses biggest backlog of repair work inBorough * NYC Housing Authority boasted of progress at reducing hugebacklog. Watchdog called it "creative accounting" (Pro Publica) * NYC is poised to launch a $10 million project to provide free Internet broadband access to more than 16,000 residents of its sprawling public housing system. * Editorial: NYCHA broadband does not compute (NYDN Ed)
Flashback Campaign 2013: de Blasio Said He Had A Different Attitude About NYCHA and Promised A "New Beginning"
Stringer: NYCHA Mismanagement
New York City Public Housing Units Remain Empty Unnecessarily, Audit Finds (NYT) A report released by New York City’s comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, found that apartments remain vacant unnecessarily, either waiting for repairs for years or staying empty long after renovations.NYCHA has left thousands of apartments empty for repairs (NYP) * Amid a crisis in affordable housing, the city’s Housing Authority kept 80 low-rent apartments empty for more than 10 years for repairs and renovations — including one dating back to 1994, NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer found in an audit. * Time to evict New York’s public-housing slumlord (NYP Ed) The horrors of public housing in this city simply never cease. The latest: As 270,000 people languish on waiting lists desperate for an affordable place to live, thousands of low-rent publicly owned apartments sit vacant — often for years. That’s the tragic finding of an audit city Comptroller Scott Stringer released last week. And it’s yet another in a long string of reasons to evict the landlord: i.e., the New York City Housing Authority.* A new audit by NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer on the troubled New York City Housing Authority reveals that more than 2,000 pubic-housing apartments remain vacant because of pending repairs. * New York City Public Housing Has Pileup of Repairs, Comptroller’s Audit Finds (NYT) Comptroller Scott M. Stringer is recommending investing in technology to track repairs in public housing similar to the CompStat program that the Police Department uses to map and respond to crime.
First the Daily News Attack Torres For Not Taking Responsibility for NYCHA Mess Now They Give Him Space to Praise the Same Person His Was Blaming
But New York City Councilman Ritchie Torres and Smith Houses Resident Association President Aixa Torres write in the Daily News that the future of NYCHA is bright, thanks to Chairwoman Shola Olatoye’s vision and de Blasio’s support * The Post writes that it is time to evict the de Blasio administration from running NYCHA and break up the behemoth government monopoly after a city comptroller audit found long waiting lists for major repairs and thousands of vacant apartments:
6 Months Ago the Daily News Went After Torres for Blaming NYCHA Chair Olatoye
Members of the CityCouncil are NYCHA’s true owners (NYDN Dec 2014) Those grilling chairwoman Shola Olatoye need to take a hard look in the mirror The chairman of the City Council Public Housing Committee says he knows who’s responsible for leaving public housing decrepit and dangerous: a conspiracy of the powerful. In which Councilman Ritchie Torres failed to include himself and the rest of the city legislature.it’s time for Torres, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and the rest of the body to recognize that they serve as landlords for more than 400,000 New Yorkers. The public housing crisis is theirs to solve. NYCHA needs more money to operate and much more money to make repairs. If Torres & Co. are serious that improving the lives of residents is a top priority, they will draw a budget that provides the cash by shifting support away from less pressing needs.
Stringer Puts Press On de Blaiso to Stop the Mold At Public Housing
NYCHA residents still waiting for change after Mayor de Blasio's promises (June 28, 2014) Seventeen tenants sued NYCHA in June on behalf of DeWitt Clinton Houses' 1,700 residents, demanding the authority address dozens of repairs that date back years. While de Blasio's administration has made some changes, some tenants throughout NYCHA developments still suffer. Six months ago, Mayor de Blasio took office promising big changes for public housing, but that means little to Blanche Moore, who still has to deal with sickening black mold in her bathroom. Before de Blasio’s arrival at City Hall, NYCHA was under fire for chronic mismanagement, including a huge backlog of repair requests. And de Blasio vowed to fire the agency’s chair, John Rhea, who resigned days before de Blasio arrived. De Blasio brought in as chairwoman housing advocate Shola Olatoye on Feb. 8, promising a “new beginning” for NYCHA tenants.“We begin with a different attitude toward the people we are serving. We see the tenants of NYCHA as the people we work for,” he said, standing in the basement at Lincoln Houses in East Harlem .* New York, NY - De Blasio Launches Online NYCHA Watch ...(2013) * NYC Mayoral Candidates Sleep in Public Housing - NBC ... * New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito described calls for the New York City Housing Authority Chairwoman Shola Olatoye to resign “ridiculous” and praised her “great ideas,” the Observerwrites:
The Daily News calls on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to show that he cares about improving NYCHA housing, starting with an audit by the city comptroller, launching fast-track overhauls and responding quickly to mold and water problems: * Mark-Viverito Vouches for NYCHA Head Amid ‘Ridiculous’Resignation Calls (NYO) Fix Payment System New York Comptroller Faults Payment System in 39 City Agencies (NYT) Scott M. Stringer, New York City ’s comptroller, said misuse of an arcane system allowed agencies to circumvent contract regulations and restricted oversight of vendors with integrity and performance issues.
Flashback Campaign 2013: de Blasio Said He Had A Different Attitude About NYCHA and Promised A "New Beginning"
Stringer: NYCHA Mismanagement
New York City Public Housing Units Remain Empty Unnecessarily, Audit Finds (NYT) A report released by New York City’s comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, found that apartments remain vacant unnecessarily, either waiting for repairs for years or staying empty long after renovations.NYCHA has left thousands of apartments empty for repairs (NYP) * Amid a crisis in affordable housing, the city’s Housing Authority kept 80 low-rent apartments empty for more than 10 years for repairs and renovations — including one dating back to 1994, NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer found in an audit. * Time to evict New York’s public-housing slumlord (NYP Ed) The horrors of public housing in this city simply never cease. The latest: As 270,000 people languish on waiting lists desperate for an affordable place to live, thousands of low-rent publicly owned apartments sit vacant — often for years. That’s the tragic finding of an audit city Comptroller Scott Stringer released last week. And it’s yet another in a long string of reasons to evict the landlord: i.e., the New York City Housing Authority.* A new audit by NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer on the troubled New York City Housing Authority reveals that more than 2,000 pubic-housing apartments remain vacant because of pending repairs.
First the Daily News Attack Torres For Not Taking Responsibility for NYCHA Mess Now They Give Him Space to Praise the Same Person His Was Blaming
But New York City Councilman Ritchie Torres and Smith Houses Resident Association President Aixa Torres write in the Daily News that the future of NYCHA is bright, thanks to Chairwoman Shola Olatoye’s vision and de Blasio’s support * The Post writes that it is time to evict the de Blasio administration from running NYCHA and break up the behemoth government monopoly after a city comptroller audit found long waiting lists for major repairs and thousands of vacant apartments:
6 Months Ago the Daily News Went After Torres for Blaming NYCHA Chair Olatoye
Members of the CityCouncil are NYCHA’s true owners (NYDN Dec 2014) Those grilling chairwoman Shola Olatoye need to take a hard look in the mirror The chairman of the City Council Public Housing Committee says he knows who’s responsible for leaving public housing decrepit and dangerous: a conspiracy of the powerful. In which Councilman Ritchie Torres failed to include himself and the rest of the city legislature.it’s time for Torres, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and the rest of the body to recognize that they serve as landlords for more than 400,000 New Yorkers. The public housing crisis is theirs to solve. NYCHA needs more money to operate and much more money to make repairs. If Torres & Co. are serious that improving the lives of residents is a top priority, they will draw a budget that provides the cash by shifting support away from less pressing needs.
Post Always Reports NYCHA Leadership Sucks The Post writes that it is time to evict the de Blasio administration from running NYCHA and break up the behemoth government monopoly after a city comptroller audit found long waiting lists for major repairs and thousands of vacant apartments: REAL ESTATE—“Stringer: NYCHA apartments left vacant for years “Low-income apartments run by the New York City Housing Authority are in high demand, with more than 270,000 applicants on the authority’s waiting list. But some 241 NYCHA units slated for repairs have remained vacant for an average of seven years, costing the agency millions in lost rents, according to an audit released on Wednesday by Comptroller Scott Stringer. Stringer, speaking during a news conference outside the Raymond V. Ingersoll Houses in Brooklyn , criticized the housing authority for its oversight of the vacancies. … According to NYCHA, the agency has 2,342 vacant apartments that have been left empty for a combination of short- and long-term repairs. Stringer’s audit found that these numbers are ‘estimates at best,’ and that NYCHA lacks adequate records on apartment occupancy * Audit: NYC Housing Authority sitting on 2,000 vacant units (WSJ) * More than a day after ‘framework’ agreement, educationissues remain unresolved in Albany * Calls for NYCHA Head’s Ouster Spur Defense of De Blasio’sRecord (City Limits) *Tenants, churches want NYCHA boss to resign over lack of mold repairs(NYDN)
True News Wonders Why the NYT Did Not Point Out the Poor State of Public Housing Finances When the Candidates Were Making Promises of More Services During the 2013 Election
The Times writes that to save New York City’s public housing, de Blasioneeds to “find a ton of money, then put it where his mouth is,” and that after decades of neglect it will remain a perplexing challenge:
Councilman Torres: The Mayor's NYCHA Plan Lacks Real Numbers
Councilman questions de Blasio’s public-housing projections (NYP) Just weeks after Mayor de Blasio unveiled a lofty proposal to rescue the city’s cash-strapped public-housing system, City Council officials questioned the “credibility” of Hizzoner’s projections. Councilman Ritchie Torres of The Bronx, chairman of the Public Housing Committee, questioned the broad-ranging projection Monday. “When I hear a range of $300 to $600 million, that’s such a wide gap that it raises questions about the credibility of these numbers,” he said. * Just weeks after NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a lofty proposal to rescue the city’s cash-strapped public-housing system, City Council officials questioned the “credibility” of his projections.
de Blasio Attacked Bloomberg Plan to Sell NYCHA Land to Developers . . . Now That is His Plan
Tuesday
The Times writes that to save New York City’s public housing, de Blasioneeds to “find a ton of money, then put it where his mouth is,” and that after decades of neglect it will remain a perplexing challenge:* NEXTGEN NYCHA: Ralph da Costa Nunez in City & State warns that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to stabilize the New York City Housing Authority could have the unintended consequence of encouraging family homelessness:
A cornerstone of the de Blasio administration’s plan to stabilize NYCHA is the leasing of land for private development on the authority’s land, which could prove as controversial as the funding gap it seeks to address, Crain’s New Yorkreports: * City Won’t Release List of NYCHA Sites For PrivateDevelopment Until August (LoDown)Mayor de Blasio to Announce Plan for Shoring Up New York’s Public Housing (NYT) Bill de Blasio will call for significant new financial help from the city and for squeezing more revenue out of the housing projects and their residents.* Mayor @BillDeBlasio to lease @NYCHA land to developers, reduce #NYCHA staff and increase #NYCHA parking fees*De Blasio to announce massive changes to public housing (NYP) The proposal, expected to be announced on Tuesday, will seek to fix public housing by leasing half the unused land for market-rate apartments and to save $90 million a year by moving administrative workers to other agencies, according to The New York Times. * As public advocate, de Blasio railed against then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg for a similar proposal. The New York City Housing Authority is projected to run a $98 million deficit this year and is suffering from a lack of federal funding. In addition to moving 1,000 NYCHA employees and their salaries to other agencies, the proposal is expected to generate some $500 million over 10 years by leasing land to developers, the Times said. The plan also calls for improving rent collections, now at a mere 74 percent rate.*City to unveil plan to create budget surplus at NYCHA within three years that would generate $300M by 2025 (NYDN) * NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio to Unveil 10-Year Plan to Fix Public Housing Agency (WSJ) Outside development under consideration for public housing land.*NYCHA plans to offer private developers a chance to build mixed-income towers on underused parcels to stabilize the agency’s finances and create apartments for poor tenants.* De Blasio is bringing back the plan to lease public housingto developers: (NY Curbed)*Public Housing Residents Wary of Mayor de Blasio’s Plan (NYT)
Flashback During the Mayor Campaign de Blasio Said He is Against Selling Off NYCHA Land
Bill de Blasio slamsNYCHA leadership, Bloomberg, vows big changes (2013, NYDN Ed) New York mayoral front-runner Bill de Blasio ripped the “fundamental problem of management” at New York City Housing Authority on Wednesday and vowed to clean house if he’s elected. In a sitdown with the Daily News Editorial Board, de Blasio blasted Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who he said has ignored scandalous conditions NYCHA’s 600,000 tenants have endured for most of the mayor’s 12 years in office. “At minimum, as a way forward, there should be a mayoral-control mindset vis-à-vis public housing,” he said. “We’re going to have to rework the operational approach at NYCHA.” Manhattan projects for private apartment buildings that would rent mostly at market rates.
Bill de Blasio(Public Advocate) (2013 Real Deal) I fundamentally believe that the relationship between the city and its developer community needs a reset. Towering, glitzy buildings marketed to the global elite is not the type of development New Yorkers are looking for. I look forward to working with the real estate community to spur the development, in all five boroughs, of real affordable housing, mixed-income neighborhoods, sustainable and vibrant density, and new spaces for small and new businesses to grow and thrive. Manhattan . The profits would go toward NYCHA’S $60 million budget shortfall. Not surprisingly, NYCHA tenants and affordable housing advocates vocally opposed the plan. In August, the city announced that NYCHA would look to developers for ideas on how to implement its plan. *De Blasio is poised to lay out his 10-year plan on how to fix New York City ’s public housing authority. He’ll call for significant new financial help from the city and for squeezing more revenue out of the housing projects and their residents.
Then in November, NYCHA tenants filed suit against the city. Time will tell what incoming Mayor Bill DeBlasio will do with this one. * NY Daily News: NYCHA Neglecting Repairs, OverstatingProgress * The Bloomberg Administration is trying to sell off publichousing parking lots to luxury developers; NYCHA residents, "Oh, no youdon't." (WBAI) * Tenants of Bronx housing complex suing NYCHA over ‘danger to their life’
How the NYT Rose Colored NYCHA New General Manager
GOP Congress Will Cut More Funds From Public Housing
Idiots Sold Off Supplies Need for Cleaning
NYCHA quietly sold off supplies needed for repairs and cleanup (NYDN)
NYCHA Begs Albany for $$$ Hundreds of New York City Housing Authority residents plan to rally in
Not Fixing NYCHA, Increasing Homeless & Bad School More Regressive Than Progressive
WSJNY: “De Blasio Undecided on Whether to Endorse Clinton” * - amNY: “De Blasio wants 'substance' before endorsing Clinton ” “We progressives have a lot of work to do to influence thedirection of the Democratic Party" said...Scott Stringer! (WSJ) * NYC Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, like Mayor Bill de Blasio, is not ready to support Clinton ’s campaign. “I look forward to hearing from all the Democratic candidates,” she said. * Rep. Jerry Nadler defended de Blasio’s non-endorsement of Clinton , saying: “(I)t’s perfectly legitimate to ask candidates for anything to explain their positions on things and to take positions you want them to take.” * Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the first woman to lead a legislative conference in Albany , has endorsed Clinton . * Though they’re both pushing for the same goal – getting more kids to opt out of the standardized tests to be administered this week – parents groups and the teachers unionhave different motivations. *CLINTON and HUMA ABEDIN spent yesterday in a van headed for Iowa , with Clinton tweeting: “Road trip! Loaded the van & set off for IA. Met a great family when we stopped [for gas in Pennsylvania ] this afternoon. Many more to come.” *
Yesterday de Blasio Said the NYCHA is Not Ready and Very Troubling As Media Talks About Blocks of Money Saving SAVING NYCHA: Mayor Bill de Blasio says he has freed up nearly half a billion dollars for the city’s public housing system over the next four years, but at least one lawmaker questions the mayor’s accounting, City & State reports: * Cuomo and de Blasio’s plans for how to best spend $100 million in state funds for NYCHA differ, with Cuomo turning to state legislators to decide how to dole out the funds in their districts, the DailyNews writes:
Media Spin Control: How the Media Ignores NYCHA Supply Land Sell Off and Campaign Promises of Better Management and Repairs
Congress Now Investigating NYCHA Supplies Sell Off
The chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has opened an investigation into New York City Housing Authority’s sale of brand-new supplies, the Daily News reports:
* The New York City Housing Authority, the country’s largest public housing agency, says it has made major progress responding to residents’ requests for repairs, but residents tell a different story, ProPublica reports:
de Blasio Quietly Selling Off NYCHA Parking Lots, Green Spaces an Playgrounds
NYCHA quietly selling off parking lots, green space, playgrounds to help ease budget woes (NYDN) The housing authority is quietly selling off parking lots, green space and playgrounds to developers — a spree that will create more affordable housing and help ease NYCHA’s budget woes. NYCHA has sold small parcels here and there over the years, but in 2011 began to ratchet up its sales effort, a Daily News review found. Since 2013, they’ve sold off 54 plots with 441,000 square feet of public land to private developers, records show. Most of these parcels are related to 12 projects where NYCHA has sold vacant or what it deems “underutilized” land to developers to build affordable or senior housing. On some parcels, the housing is now up; on others it’s in the works. Recently, tenants say, NYCHA officials have visited their developments in search of more potential land to sell, with plans for more “For Sale” signs later this year. A quick look at the math makes clear why this is happening: NYCHA faces a $98 million budget gap this year that could expand to $400 million by 2025, and it’s got a waiting list of 250,000 people desperate for affordable housing. n a statement to The News Friday, Olatoye made clear any land sale effort would be designed to remedy NYCHA’s fiscal ailments. Given this reality, we are exploring all options available to bring in additional revenue that will help us better serve residents. Our soon-to-be released NextGeneration NYCHA plan, which we developed with residents, community advocates, elected officials, and partners in government, will outline thoughtful strategies for preserving public housing and improving communities.” Photo: At the Van Dyke Houses in Brownsville , Brooklyn , NYCHA last year sold off one parking lot to a developer for apartments for homeless families. Now they’re talking about selling off another huge lot that’s used for football, basketball and family days.
Flashback During the Mayor Campaign de Blasio Said He is Against Selling Off NYCHA Land
Bill de Blasio slamsNYCHA leadership, Bloomberg, vows big changes (2013, NYDN Ed) New York mayoral front-runner Bill de Blasio ripped the “fundamental problem of management” at New York City Housing Authority on Wednesday and vowed to clean house if he’s elected. In a sitdown with the Daily News Editorial Board, de Blasio blasted Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who he said has ignored scandalous conditions NYCHA’s 600,000 tenants have endured for most of the mayor’s 12 years in office. “At minimum, as a way forward, there should be a mayoral-control mindset vis-à-vis public housing,” he said. “We’re going to have to rework the operational approach at NYCHA.” Manhattan projects for private apartment buildings that would rent mostly at market rates.
Bill de Blasio(Public Advocate) (2013 Real Deal) I fundamentally believe that the relationship between the city and its developer community needs a reset. Towering, glitzy buildings marketed to the global elite is not the type of development New Yorkers are looking for. I look forward to working with the real estate community to spur the development, in all five boroughs, of real affordable housing, mixed-income neighborhoods, sustainable and vibrant density, and new spaces for small and new businesses to grow and thrive. Manhattan . The profits would go toward NYCHA’S $60 million budget shortfall. Not surprisingly, NYCHA tenants and affordable housing advocates vocally opposed the plan. In August, the city announced that NYCHA would look to developers for ideas on how to implement its plan. Then in November, NYCHA tenants filed suit against the city. Time will tell what incoming Mayor Bill DeBlasio will do with this one. * NY Daily News: NYCHA Neglecting Repairs, OverstatingProgress * The Bloomberg Administration is trying to sell off publichousing parking lots to luxury developers; NYCHA residents, "Oh, no youdon't." (WBAI) * Tenants of Bronx housing complex suing NYCHA over ‘danger to their life’
We Like to Know What Council Speaker Mark-Viverito, Councilmembers, Chin, Mendez and Levin All Who Opposed Bloomberg's Plan to Sell Off 8 NYCHA Parking Lots, Think About the Current NYCHA Sell Off
Elected officials and mayoral candidates also spoke out against the proposal, saying that NYCHA would have more money for much-needed repairs if the city stopped charging the agency extra money for basic services such as sanitation and policing. These are services NYCHA residents say they already pay for in their taxes, like every other city resident. "If NYCHA can recapture over $100 million annually — double the amount projected to be generated by the infill under the most optimistic of scenarios — this money can be reinvested in frontline repairs and critical upgrade," Councilwomen Margaret Chin, Rosie Mendez and Melissa Mark-Viverito wrote in a joint statement at the public hearing.
'She never should have been down there': Faulty trash machine FIXED 7 TIMES may have caused NYCHA worker's death * 'They never fixed it': NYCHA workers use SILVER TAPE on faulty trash-hauling device amid safety fear, death of employee * City wants NYCHA plan on Sandy repairs (NYDN) * A banner day to protest NYCHA infill plan (Villager) New York City Housing Authority residents and community advocates this week continued their protests of NYCHA’s infill plan by dropping banners at the proposed infill developments, including the Lower East Side’s Baruch Houses, at right. Under the authority’s plan, some sites on public housing grounds would be leased to private developers to build “80/20” projects, with 80 percent market-rate housing and 20 percent affordable housing. A percentage of the millions of dollars in revenue would go back to the cash-strapped agency to help fund building repairs and defray other costs. As the infill plan moves forward amid a state judge’s recent dismissal of a City Council lawsuit against the plan, residents called on Mayor Bloomberg — now in his final two weeks in office — to give up on the proposal and “Let de Blasio decide” how to raise the money needed to fill NYCHA’s budget gaps.
How the NYT Rose Colored NYCHA New General Manager
GOP Congress Will Cut More Funds From Public Housing
Idiots Sold Off Supplies Need for Cleaning
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NYCHA Sold Off Supplies Needed for Cleaning Their Buildings
GOP Congress Will Cut More Funds From Public Housing
Idiots Sold Off Supplies Need for Cleaning
NYCHA quietly sold off supplies needed for repairs and cleanup (NYDN)
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NYCHA Sold Off Supplies Needed for Cleaning Their Buildings
The New York City Housing Authority has been quietly selling off boxes and boxes of unused supplies while frustrated NYCHA employees do not have the tools to do their jobs
Familiar Face Is Hired to Steer New York City’s Housing Agency (NYT) Michael P. Kelly, an architect who has been called on to rescue troubled housing authorities in the past, returns as general manager of the nation’s largest public housing agency.De Blasio calls new NYCHA hire’s affair ‘a mistake’ (NYP)Mayor de Blasio on Wednesday named a new general manager for the New York City Housing Authority — and had to explain how the guy made one “mistake” by having... New NYCHA exec quit Philly job over admitted affair (NYDN) * NYCHA Funding War (YNN) In yet another chapter in the ongoing saga of OneUpsManship between Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, funding for the New York City Housing Authority is now the source of an intense behind the scenes fight. Sources say the figure that has been agreed upon is $100 million in the state budget for NYCHA. But it is how that money is administered which is the source of the dispute. * CouncilwomanRaises Concerns About ‘Blocs’ of Asians Moving into NYCHA (NYO) *Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo makes bizarre claim that 'large Asian population' has moved into Fort Greene, Crown Heights (NYDN) * @NYCHA Not Claiming$75 Million in Federal Funds. Projected 2015 Deficit? $98 Million via @Observer * De Blasio, Cuomo at odds over NYCHA budget money * De Blasio Public Housing Head: No ExtraApartments for Homeless (NYO)* As state budget talks continue in Albany, there is a new fight brewing overfunding for the city's housing authority. (NY1)
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NYCHA Corrupt Contract Fire Sale 
The New York City Housing Authority has begun selling off hundreds of thousands of dollars of new, unused items for far less than the agency paid for them, while city Comptroller Scott Stringer has begun to probe the purchases, the Daily News reports: * The Daily News writes that the New York City HousingAuthority must stop the “unconscionable” waste of taxpayers’ property by quietly selling $18.1 million worth of inventory in “black-hole storerooms”* The de Blasio administration reached a project labor agreement with the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, covering $3.5 billion of work and repairs at the NYCHA over the next three years.* The New York City Housing Authority said a labor deal with the Building & Construction Trades Council will speed up building repairs and give tenants a shot at union jobs, the Daily News reports:
New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer issued subpoenas seeking details on the New York City Housing Authority’s sale of unused supplies, and a councilman scheduled oversight hearings, the Daily News reports: * NYCHA will be forced to give answers on their supply sale - NY Daily News * New York City
de Blasio's NYCHA Plan: The Beginning of the End of Public Housing
Monday Daily News Supports the Public Housing Sell Off
The Daily News writes that New York City politicians are sending a “donot enter” message to private investors who may potentially aid public housing by publicly tarring a much-needed deal:
All Bloomberg Wanted to Do Was Sell Their Parking Lots to Support Public Housing
De Blasio NYCHA Head Suggests Private Partnerships Are theFuture * NYCHA defended a deal to sell off half of six projects to private developers as the only way to bring in additional revenue for the troubled housing agency and improve conditions for residents, the Daily Newsreports: * New York City Housing Authority Chairwoman and CEO Shola Olatoye said partnerships between the housing authority and private real estate groups may be the future for the cash-strapped agency, the Observer reports . The deal was made behind the back of de Blasio puppet city council.
The 18 Billion NYCHA Debt, GOP Congress Makes the Campaign Promise to Fix Public Housing BS
You Get No Help From Washington When Their is A Congress Controlled By the GOP And Your One Party City With A Mayor on the Left
While U.S. law forbids mortgaging public housing, a spending deal in Congress may expand a small program that lets housing authorities team up with developers for a turnaround. Ocean Bay Houses in the Rockaways would get a $78 million overhaul under the spending bill. That’d be a start, but would still leave about 176,000 NYCHA apartments rotting. The rehabbed units are, in effect, market rate units. Section 8 pays the developer the difference between 1/3 of the income of the tenant and market rate. If Section 8 money is not available, the developer has the right to empty the apartments and charge what the market will bear. (Just as in private section 8 voucher deals.)."* NO HELP FOR BILL: Republican-run Congress won't be friendly to Mayor de Blasio's goals for New York, insiders say(NYDN)* NYCHA Factors into Comcast-Time Warner Merger Bid
NYCHA Up Elevator $$$
Elevator repair costs for NYC skyrocket after court settlement (NYP) Empire Center
Do the Residents in Public Housing Have Human Rights? Mercury Greenspun Part of the City's Shadow Government Was Appointed By de Blasio to the Human Rights Commission
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de Blasio's Deputy Mayor Has Ties to L+M Development Partners Inc the Other Company Picked to Take Over Public Housing Apartments
Mr. de Blasio is still an enigma to some in the business community, even those who have worked with him over the years. Lisa Gomez, an executive at L+M Development Partners, raised more than $13,000 for Mr. de Blasio based on his commitment to build more affordable housing, a focus of her firm. Two Mayor de Blasioappointees tasked with affordable housing have ties to developers (NYDN) Alicia Glen, the new deputy mayor for housing and economic development, and Vicki Been, head of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, both have ties to an organization funded by major developer Ron Moelis. The housing deals Glen worked on at Goldman Sachs may also come before her for approval in City Hall. At the time of her selection by de Blasio, Glen also sat on the board of the Moelis Institute for Affordable Housing Policy, an organization founded by a major developer of affordable housing — Ron Moelis of L+M Development Partners Inc.
Lobbyists Behind Developers Named By de Blasio in Public Housing Sell-Off Are On the Mayor's Staff
Do the Residents in Public Housing Have Human Rights? Mercury Greenspun Part of the City's Shadow Government Was Appointed By de Blasio to the Human Rights Commission
Greensun's Mercury Public Affairs, LLC Work for BFC Parnters A Company Name to Take Over Public Housing Apartments
Campaign 2017: de Blasio Pull GOP Lobbyists Who Opposed Him in 2013 to His Team (Pulling A Cuomo)
As a managing director at Mercury, Mr. Greenspun lobbied New York City government on behalf of the technology company, Intergraph Corporation, which was a contractor on the city's troubled Emergency Communications Transformation Program, or ECTP, outsourcing technology contract to upgrade the city's unwieldy 911 emergency call system. The primary contractor on the ECTP contract, Hewlett-Packard, initially resisted efforts to work with Intergraph on a solution to the New York Police Department's upgrade of its Computer Aided Dispatch system, according to a draft 2007 memorandum between Bloomberg administration officials. The ECTP project has been faulted by government reform advocates for having ballooned by about $1 billion over budget, for falling several years behind schedule, and for still failing to properly work. The troubled ECTP project has led to several deaths, raising questions of possible criminal negligence by ECTP consultants.
Media Never Names the Lobbyist Who Made Money on the Broken 911 System . . . Will the Investigators?
What role did 911 lobbyists play in giving Verzon gifts to NYPD Assistant Chief Charles (Chuck) Dowd? The Death of Ariel Russo Did Not Even Stop the Corruption and Incompetence of the 911 System
Daily News the What Happen But Not the How and Why
Daily News Today Says 911 System Failed Ariel Russo But Do Not Name the Lobbyist for the Contractors or the reasons for NYPD's communication director Dowd being forced out and his aides jumping ship. Former Comptroller Liu said HP overbilled the city for $163 million and didn't properly deliver for years. In 2012 Liu callled for a review of the HP contract by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. “because of the possibility of fraud in the solicitation and billing process.” Liu’s audit said that Hewlett Packard shouldn’t have been hired for the 911 work because it failed to meet the city’s technical requirements. Among the lobbyists to get paid by the city’s broken 911 system contractors wLiu also claimed that the city and HP hired unqualified project consultants and overbilled the city by another $50 million.as George Arzt, Mercury Public Affairs, LLC, Jennifer Carlson, Peter Barden, Jonathan Greenspun, Michael McKeon, Kasirer Consulting LLC. More on Corrupt Lobbyists
de Blasio's Deputy Mayor Has Ties to L+M Development Partners Inc the Other Company Picked to Take Over Public Housing Apartments
How the Crime Wave At NYCHA is Being Kept Secret
Shooting Up 20% at Public Housing
NYCHA Bottle Your Own Water Another Mess
You Get No Help From Washington When Their is A Congress Controlled By the GOP And Your One Party City With A Mayor on the Left
While U.S. law forbids mortgaging public housing, a spending deal in Congress may expand a small program that lets housing authorities team up with developers for a turnaround. Ocean Bay Houses in the Rockaways would get a $78 million overhaul under the spending bill. That’d be a start, but would still leave about 176,000 NYCHA apartments rotting. The rehabbed units are, in effect, market rate units. Section 8 pays the developer the difference between 1/3 of the income of the tenant and market rate. If Section 8 money is not available, the developer has the right to empty the apartments and charge what the market will bear. (Just as in private section 8 voucher deals.)."* NO HELP FOR BILL: Republican-run Congress won't be friendly to Mayor de Blasio's goals for New York, insiders say(NYDN)
NYCHA Chairwoman Olatoye Keeps Promises Better Housing Despite GOP Takeover of the Senate Which Will Result In Less Money for Public Housing
Things will get better, promises NYCHA chairwoman(NYDN) It’s time to make innovative, practical, difficult choices about how we operate, how we are financed and the ways we rebuild and rehabilitate our 2,500 properties, writes chairwoman and CEO Shola Olatoye.Steady federal disinvestment since 2001 has left a staggering $1 billion deficit and significant capital needs, from fixing roofs to bolstering security. We cannot continue this way.* Mold still a growing problem for hundreds ofNYCHA tenants a year after promise of fixes (NYDN) A year ago, NYCHA signed a federal consent decree requiring it to repair mold conditions for residents with asthma. The Daily News looked at a half-dozen developments, chosen at random, and found hundreds of tenants still waiting for progress to be made.* NYCHA tenants sharetheir stories of battling mold (NYDN) A year after NYCHA signed a federal consent decree requiring aggressive improvements, many residents are still waiting for fixes. Some got their repairs — but the job was shoddy and the mold came back. Five residents share their slimy experiences.
Republican-run Congress won't help Bill de Blasio's goals for New York, insiders say(NYDN)* "Impeccable" affordability? Next two subsidized towers skewed to those earning six figures(Atlantic Yards Report)* NYCHA Selling AStake Of Its Apartments For Fast Cash (Gothamist)* “We have to think about supporting those units differently,” Shola Olatoye, the NYCHA chairwomantold the Wall Street Journal.*The NYCHA complexes affected by the deal are Section 8 units in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan , including Campos Plaza East 4th Street Rehab. After the apartments are renovated (at a cost of $80,000 a unit), the developers would be able to receive the difference between the NYCHA rent and the market-rate rent from the federal government; in addition to receiving tax credits, after 30 years, the developers will be allowed to turn the apartments into market-rate units, though the details of the deal apparently allow NYCHA to make the final decision.* NYCHA is selling a 50% stake in 900 apartments to L+M Development Partners Inc. and BFC Partner for $150 million, plus $100 million in revenue over 15 years and another $100 million in renovations.* Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. plans to give $101 million from a bank settlement to the New York City Housing Authority for security cameras, better lighting and a swipe-card system for residents to enter the buildings, The Wall Street Journal reports: * After #AkaiGurley shooting, 143 lights were fixed at pink houses ("mostly bulb replacement") @NYCHA #brooklyn
Daily News Tell CM Torres Your the NYCHA Problem
Instead of just criticizing the state of the New York City Housing Authority, New York City Councilman Richie Torres and the rest of the city Council should recognize they serve as landlords for more than 400,000 New Yorkers and the public housing crisis is theirs to solve
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Members of the CityCouncil are NYCHA’s true owners (NYDN) Those grilling chairwoman Shola Olatoye need to take a hard look in the mirror The chairman of the City Council Public Housing Committee says he knows who’s responsible for leaving public housing decrepit and dangerous: a conspiracy of the powerful. In which Councilman Ritchie Torres failed to include himself and the rest of the city legislature.it’s time for Torres, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and the rest of the body to recognize that they serve as landlords for more than 400,000 New Yorkers. The public housing crisis is theirs to solve. NYCHA needs more money to operate and much more money to make repairs. If Torres & Co. are serious that improving the lives of residents is a top priority, they will draw a budget that provides the cash by shifting support away from less pressing needs.
NYCHA Has A Math Problem But Also A Larger Larger Washington Cut-Off Problem
City Council membersconfront NYCHA over skyrocketing overtime costs (NYDN) NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye blamed the authority’s excessive OT bill on the emergency nature of repairs, which she said often results in evening or weekend jobs.City council members confronted NYCHA over its ballooning overtime costs on Tuesday, responding to a Daily News exposé about plumbers who’ve worked so much OT that they earn more than the authority chairwoman. “Have you looked at the math to make sure that you’re using the money wisely?” an incredulous Councilman Jumaane Williams asked NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye and other agency execs during a hearing on how the authority’s repair problems have affected tenant safety.* According to a city investigation, one in three New York City Housing Authority tenants say mold in their apartments returns even after NYCHA claims the problem is fixed,the Daily News reports:
de Blasio Campaign Trail Promises On Public Housing
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5 NYC mayoral candidates take on Rev. Al Sharpton’s challenge, spent last night in public housing (NYP, July 21, 2013)
Lobbyists Behind Developers Named By de Blasio in Public Housing Sell-Off Are On the Mayor's Staff
Do the Residents in Public Housing Have Human Rights? Mercury Greenspun Part of the City's Shadow Government Was Appointed By de Blasio to the Human Rights Commission
Greensun's Mercury Public Affairs, LLC Work for BFC Parnters A Company Name to Take Over Public Housing Apartments
As a managing director at Mercury, Mr. Greenspun lobbied
Media Never Names the Lobbyist Who Made Money on the Broken 911 System . . . Will the Investigators?
What role did 911 lobbyists play in giving Verzon gifts to NYPD Assistant Chief Charles (Chuck) Dowd? The Death of Ariel Russo Did Not Even Stop the Corruption and Incompetence of the 911 System
Daily News the What Happen But Not the How and Why
Daily News Today Says 911 System Failed Ariel Russo But Do Not Name the Lobbyist for the Contractors or the reasons for NYPD's communication director Dowd being forced out and his aides jumping ship. Former Comptroller Liu said HP overbilled the city for $163 million and didn't properly deliver for years. In 2012 Liu callled for a review of the HP contract by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. “because of the possibility of fraud in the solicitation and billing process.” Liu’s audit said that Hewlett Packard shouldn’t have been hired for the 911 work because it failed to meet the city’s technical requirements. Among the lobbyists to get paid by the city’s broken 911 system contractors wLiu also claimed that the city and HP hired unqualified project consultants and overbilled the city by another $50 million.as George Arzt, Mercury Public Affairs, LLC, Jennifer Carlson, Peter Barden, Jonathan Greenspun, Michael McKeon, Kasirer Consulting LLC. More on Corrupt Lobbyists
More on Dark Pool Corrupt Lobbyists
de Blasio's Deputy Mayor Has Ties to L+M Development Partners Inc the Other Company Picked to Take Over Public Housing Apartments
Just Reacts to the Headlines
EXCLUSIVE: Mayor de Blasio wants to make it easier to evict and exclude criminals – who terrorize residents – from NYCHA apartments (NYDN) As crime spiked across the authority’s 328 developments and wreaked havoc in surrounding neighborhoods, the city dropped the ball on doing something about the perps next door — and the mayor is now vowing to fix the problem. Mayor de Blasio’s spokeswoman Karen Hinton told The News Saturday the mayor has ordered a total overhaul of the entire referral process to make it faster and easier for NYCHA to evict or exclude residents who are committing crimes on authority properties. The number of eviction cases commenced by NYCHA against criminal tenants dropped 40% from 1,581 in 2011 to 942 last year — and it’s on pace to stay the same this year. The number of actual evictions dropped from 172 in 2009 to 45 last year. As of mid-October this year there have only been 20. Meanwhile, crime — including shootings, murders, assaults and robbery — jumped 31% at NYCHA projects from 2009 through 2013, far outpacing a 3% rise citywide. It dropped off slightly in 2014, but climbed 11% in the last month. NYCHA can also permanently exclude non-tenants of record who live in NYCHA apartments. Exclusions rose this year to 415 from 344 last year, but are still way down from 619 in 2010. Tyrone Howard had been convicted repeatedly of dealing drugs out of the East River Houses, but he would do his time and then return to his old stomping grounds to sell more drugs.
.Why Did NYC Congressional Delegation Allow the City to Miss Out on $700 Million for NYCHA?
NYCHA Real World: Despite the Promises Washington Cut Will Reshape Public Housing
Thousands of city renters who rely on public subsidies are being forced to pay more for housing or move into a smaller space.Public Housing In City Reaches A Fiscal Crisis(NYT) Federal subsidies for the New York City Housing Authority have been shrinking greatly since the 2000s, and its spending has been cut, repairs uncompleted and renovations put off.* After years of shrinking government investment in public housing, NYCHA has a $77 million budget deficit this year and unfunded capital needs totaling $18 billion, its officials say.
'IT'S THE SAME': NYCHA residents still waiting for change after Mayor de Blasio's promises, from six months ago(NYDN) Seventeen tenants sued NYCHA in June on behalf of DeWitt Clinton Houses' 1,700 residents, demanding the authority address dozens of repairs that date back years. While de Blasio's administration has made some changes, some tenants throughout NYCHA developments still suffer.
deB Understand Public Housing Funding Problems and Begins the Sell-Off to His Real Estate Supporters
Daily News Cheer Leads Innovative Privatization of Public Housing to Get the Big Fix
Daily News Cheer Leads Innovative Privatization of Public Housing to Get the Big Fix
Wednesday
Daily News to Public Housing Tenants Drop Dead
At New York City Council Hearing, Concerns About Housing Authority Practices(NYT) Among the officials’ concerns were the slow pace of repairs and the practice of police officers’ citing residents for violations of housing authority rules.* Police Patrols in New York Public Housing Draw Scrutiny(NYT)* City Council membersconfront NYCHA over skyrocketing overtime costs (NYDN) NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye blamed the authority’s excessive OT bill on the emergency nature of repairs, which she said often results in evening or weekend jobs.* City Council Holds NYCHA Safety Hearing (NY1)* DA Pledges $100M to Improve Public Housing Safety(NY1) * PLUMB CRAZY: NYCHA confronted by city council over skyrocketing overtime costs exposed by the Daily News(NYDN)* Bad management costNYCHA $700M, says Comptroller @scottmstringer (via @joeanuta)
Daily News to Public Housing Tenants Drop Dead
Play with house money (NYDN) NYCHA wisely taps private partners to save publicly funded housing. Taking advantage of a federal program that subsidizes private landlords who renovate low-income housing, NYCHA Chair Shola Olatoye brought in developers to share ownership of 875 crumbling apartments in Manhattan , the Bronx and Brooklyn . Tenants will continue to pay reduced rents while the developers finance upgrades, make a good buck and generate a projected $200 million for NYCHA. The authority desperately needs many similarly creative deals. It will start 2015 with an operating budget that’s $98 million in the red, plus a $14 billion shortfall in money needed to repair roofs, replace plumbing and keep increasingly derelict buildings habitable. * Tenant leader at Pink Houses says NYCHA staff didn’t attend tenant association mtg because they weren’t approved to get overtime.
Tuesday Update Since 2008, the average over-time pay earned by NYCHA workers rose 204 percent through fiscal 2014, a CUNY analysis found—for an agency that’s facing a $77 million deficit, that amount of overtime is a serious problem, the Daily News writes * New York City should put a tax surcharge on residences valued at $5 million and up that are owned by part-time New Yorkers to fund the critical $13-billion shortfall in the maintenance and repair budget for the New York City Housing Authority, amNew York writes
Every Time There is A Killing In Public Housing the Pols Promise to Install Cameras
Elected Officials Call for Safety Changes to NYCHA Buildings(NY1) Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams says steps should be taken now to prevent similar incidents from happening again, and it starts with making housing authority buildings safer for everyone.
NYCHA projects’security camera installation snarled by red tape: report(NYDN) The city Department of Investigation has found the process for installing cameras in public housing is seriously hampered by built-in delays.* EXCLUSIVE: NYCHAscrewed up application, missed out on federal funds for security cameras (NYDN) The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department offered $3 million this year in ‘emergency safety and security grants’ to housing authorities. But NYCHA officials sent in an incomplete application and got nothing, according to a HUD document obtained by the Daily News. Only half of the city’s 334 housing developments currently have cameras.
Why Did It Take The Death of A 7 Year Old PJ Avitto for the NYT to Demand Cameras in Public Housing?
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The New York Times writes that there is no excuse for the absence of security cameras at hundreds of public housing buildings across New York City:* Stabbing Case Highlights Flawed System to Screen Inmates Before Release(NYT) * Stabbing Case Highlights Flawed System to Screen Inmates Before Release(NYT) * Hundreds Gather to Remember 6-Year-Old Victim of Brooklyn Stabbing(NYT)
NYCHA Real World: Despite the Promises Washington Cut Will Reshape Public Housing
Thousands of city renters who rely on public subsidies are being forced to pay more for housing or move into a smaller space.
City At Last Understand That Fed Cuts Mean Less Money For Housing Repairs
Federal subsidies for the New York City Housing Authority have been shrinking greatly since the 2000s, and its spending has been cut, repairs uncompleted and renovations put off.* After years of shrinking government investment in public housing, NYCHA has a $77 million budget deficit this year and unfunded capital needs totaling $18 billion, its officials say.
Another Clue of the Strange Value System Of Those That Lable Themselves Progressives
Progressives, Including de Blasio Campaigned On Ending NYCHA's NYPD Vertical Patrols But Restart the Program When the Reality Of High Crime Appears
The housing police contend with some of the city’s most entrenched crime, particularly tit-for-tat shootings Prince Joshua “P.J.” Avitto « CBS New York * Program targets safety at NYC public housing(NYP)* Bill de Blasio Says He’ll Fulfill Horse Carriage and Living Wage Promises(NYO)* Pols Want Broader Push as 200 Cops Hit Public Housing Through Budget Deal(NYO)* DE BLASIO’S VIOLENT-CRIME CHALLENGES(New Yorker) *Security Cameras Have Mixed Results in Making Things Safer at Public Housing Developments(NY1)
As
the City Adds More Cops Why is There No Public Discussion of Judge
Scheindlin Ruling and 2013 Candidates Promising to Stop Vertical Patrols
in Public Housing
Remember
those awful “vertical patrols”? This was the policing of public housing
projects that local pols and activists called “intentionally
discriminatory” in a lawsuit against the NYPD cops still
pending..Remember those awful “vertical patrols”? This was the policing
of public housing projects that local pols and activists called
“intentionally discriminatory” in a lawsuit against the NYPD cops still
pending before federal judge Shira Scheindlin.The idea is that police
patrols of housing projects are bad for residents because they are
racist and unconstitutional.We think about Judge Scheindlin — and the
city politicians who egged her on in her fight against the police — in
the wake of the latest criminal horror, a stabbing of two children who
live in New York City Housing Authority buildings.
Why Does It Take the Murder Of A Child to Get Pols to Act?
Ex-Convict Arrested in Stabbing of Brooklyn Children(NYT)
Bragging of Safety While Many Live in Fear(Powell,
NYT) New York City asserts confidently that crime has plummeted, but
bloody corners remain. Walk the Brooklyn canyons of the Howard, Linden,
the Tilden and Van Dykes Houses, or the Webster Houses in the Bronx, and
watch young men watch you. The Daily News recently reported that crime
had edged up stubbornly in the public houses in the past five years.
Sal Albanese .
Michael Powell Senior Prisoners Of NYCHA Rising Crime
Where Are the City Council Hearing About the Increase in Crime in NYCHA Buildings?
City politicians push for more cops in crime-ridden NYCHA buildings(NYDN) With major crimes shooting up 31% at public housing projects, Public Advocate Letitia James and Councilman Ritchie Torres are calling on the NYPD to assign more officers and add features to make residents safe.
After the Spin That More Public Housing Repairs Are Being Made NYCHA Tenants Sue for Lack of Repairs
NYCHA Have Cameras But Nobody is Watchi
No End to Political Hypocrisy
The City Council is now suing to block the NYC Housing Authority from leasing underutilized land for market rate housing development even though the profits will be plowed back into improving housing authority projects. Leading the charge is City Council Christine Quinn who approved exactly such a development in her own City Council district several years ago. Nor did the City Council protest the more than 4,270 housing units which have already been developed or are in development on Housing Authority property under Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan. Could this lack of principle have anything to do with churning up support among public housing residents for the Mayoral campaign of Democratic candidate Bill De Blasio, who has also opposed leasing NYCHA property for private development?
Safetycameras are a bust, say NYCHA tenants(Mott Haven Herald)
NYCHA wrongly eschews own tenants for jobs: audit
The
New York City Housing Authority wrongly allowed contractors to blow off
rules requiring they hire NYCHA tenants, an audit released Thursday
found.
Why Did It Take The Death of A 7 Year Old for the NYT to Demand Cameras in Public Housing?
The New York Times writes that there is no excuse for the absence of security cameras at hundreds of public housing buildings across New York City:* Stabbing Case Highlights Flawed System to Screen Inmates Before Release(NYT) * Stabbing Case Highlights Flawed System to Screen Inmates Before Release(NYT) * Hundreds Gather to Remember 6-Year-Old Victim of Brooklyn Stabbing(NYT)
NYT Opposes Vertical Patrols Since 2010
Seniors and Children Public Housing Crime Victims Would Be Better Off If The NYT Would Have Called for More Cameras When They Did Their Editorial Against Vertical Patrols in 2012 or in 2010 When the Paper Sued the NYPD Over Using Housing Rules to perform hundreds of thousands of unnecessary stop and frisks
Crime Out of Mind at the New York Times(Manhattan Institute) The paper’s latest vendetta against the NYPD overlooks the rampant lawlessness in public-housing projects. Such disproportionate crime is out of sight, out of mind, however, in the Times’s latest installment of its anti-New York Police Department vendetta.
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Councilwomen Cumbo Asian Problem
Editorial: Laurie Cumbo the divider (NYDN Ed) The them-and-us racial overtones in remarks uttered in City Hall Thursday by Brooklyn Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo were appallingly divisive. Cumbo, who is African-American, represents neighborhoods that have been predominantly black for decades. More recently, some whites and Asians have arrived. Cumbo worried that Asians had moved in large numbers into certain New York City Housing Authority projects. Channeling the perspectives of residents of the Walt Whitman and Ingersoll Houses, who apparently are predominantly black, Cumbo questioned NYCHA chairwoman Shola Olatoye. Though she wrapped her words in everyone-loves-everyone rhetoric, the point was clear: We are watching them encroach upon ou r community. Follow the poisonous pronouns as Cumbo began: “We have a very large Asian population in our district, which we love, and they add something very valuable to our community and our district, and they are welcomed in our district.” How nice.* New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito called Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo’s remarks about “blocs” of Asians moving into NYCHA developments “unfortunate,” the Daily News writes
NYT Put the People in Public Housing in Danger By Demanding Changes In Policing and Ignoring the Safety of the Tenants
A front-page article on September 26 triumphantly reported that the Bronx District Attorney was no longer prosecuting trespass arrests in Bronx housing projects unless the arresting officer personally confirmed the validity of the charge. Prosecutors adopted this policy, wrote reporter Joseph Goldstein, after “discovering that many people arrested on charges of criminal trespass at housing projects were innocent, even though police officers had provided written statements to the contrary.”Losing Faith in Stop-and-Frisk(NYT)* The threats over NYPD’s horizon(NYP) Less than six months ago, the city’s cop critics were demanding that we end police tactics such as stop, question and frisk as well as NYPD attempts to keep criminals out of housing projects.Today, the same people are screaming about the rise in shootings and gang violence in the projects and certain precincts.The NYPD's Dangerous Public Housing Patrol - Business Insider * Judge, NY Times Slam NYPD Over Trespassing BS (Gothamist) Yesterday, the NYPD was sued by the NY Times for repeatedly delaying or denying their requests for information. But the analysis of the data which they do have can give you some idea why the NYPD might not want to let all that information fly free, especially in regards to stop and frisks: today, a Judge, and implicitly the paper, criticize the NYPD of unfairly manipulating Housing Authority rules in order to perform hundreds of thousands of unnecessary stop and frisks not in the spirit of the laws.
More On Crime in Public Housing
City officials push for providing lawyers for tenants facing eviction(NYDN)
*
New York City’s Department of City Planning has been studying 12 to 15
neighborhoods across the five boroughs, including East New York and
parts of central Brooklyn that are “ripe for increased density,” Crain’s
reports: http://goo.gl/PV2Oor
Camera Will Only Record the Killer, Cops Are Need to Stop Crime
Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized the New York City Housing Authority in the wake of the recent stabbings of two children in an East New York project elevator, saying the agency moved too slowly to install security cameras in public housing despite the city having allocated millions for that purpose, The New York Times reports: * Stabbings of 6-, 7-year-olds spur Mayor de Blasio to demand NYCHA security cameras by year’s end(NYDN) * ! "41% of the individual bldg stock has cameras, leaving the majority of lobbies, elevators & stairwells unwatched.” * "Nearly 60% of NYC's public housing buildings - home to 615,000 people - don't have operational security cameras..."* re-upping my story about
Why Does it Take A Murder of A Child to OK NYCHA Cameras to Be Installed?
Nearly a year after NYCHA got $500,000 in taxpayer dollars to install security cameras in all the lobbies at the Boulevard Houses, the city approved the plan — a day after the tragic stabbing attack on two children in a Boulevard elevator. Witnesses say the attacker fled via the lobby after the brutal assault. Why the cameras had not yet been installed remained unclear.* DE BLASIO’S SAFETY PLAN: “Everything we have”: Responding to a surge in violence in the city's public housing projects, and a particularly violent weekend in which 13 people were wounded by gunfire and a 6-year-old was murdered, the Mayor said last night that the city will use “everything we have” to curb violence at public housing developments: “We are going to see a much more visible presence of the NYPD in some of the housing developments that have the worst troubles.”*Homeless Families to Public Housing NYCHA to Allocate Approximately 750 Units a Year to Homeless Families Dozens of Suspected Gang Members Arrested in Raid of 2 Harlem Housing Projects: The police raid was aimed at...
Pols Hold Their Press Conferences Before the 2012 Election, But, Don't Stick Around to Solve the Crime Problem
UNSAFE AT HOME: Residents live in fear inside New York's public housing as crime skyrockets — the Daily News investigates(NYDN)
In the last five
years, the New York City Housing Authority projects saw a 31% spike in
major crimes, while the rest of the city experienced a 3.3% increase,
records obtained exclusively by the Daily News show. Some public housing
residents say they are afraid to leave their homes or even open their
doors. “It’s out of control. It’s out of hand,” declared a frustrated
Patricia
Herman, 61, who’s lived in the Lincoln Houses in East Harlem since 1979.
At Lincoln, murders, rapes, assaults, robberies, burglaries, auto theft
and grand larcenies — known as the “seven majors”— nearly doubled from
33 in 2009 to 60 last year.Flashback In 2010 the city was sued for NYPD vertical patrol at NYCHA buildings. What do you think the tenants living in fear today in public housing think about the vertical patrols ending?* What security cameras can't see - 219 Magazine
NYC's public housing, the largest in the country, has 180K apartments, w/almost 250K families on the waiting list. via
NYP Judge Scheindlin Should Be Ashamed That She Ended Vertical Patrols in Public Housing
9 People Shot In Brooklyn Saturday Night, Total in the City 13
-
@ClydeHaberman DEB et al even opp vert patrols@NYCHA Cops are not stopping anyone based on reasonable suspicion PO just responding to jobs -
@ClydeHaberman@NYCHA 16 year old shot in the head & killed in broad daylight on Classon Ave in B'klyn. Reports say cops responded quickly
Federal audit recommends NYCHA return millions to HUD over documentation issues http://capi.tl/1fCHXed v
NYP Says Subsidized Seniors in NYCHA Building in Big Apartments Should Move
A senior space odyssey(NYP) We sympathize with any New York City seniors who are forced to move from apartments they’ve happily lived in for years — and without compensation. But when the rents they pay are subsidized by the government and the apartments they live in can accommodate larger families, something’s got to give.
Bragging of Safety While Many Live in Fear(Powell, NYT) New York City asserts confidently that crime has plummeted, but bloody corners remain. Walk the Brooklyn canyons of the Howard, Linden, the Tilden and Van Dykes Houses, or the Webster Houses in the Bronx, and watch young men watch you. The Daily News recently reported that crime had edged up stubbornly in the public houses in the past five years.
-
@powellnyt@SalAlbaneseNYC OK so those who push out the Vertical Patrols were they wrong? Should that decision even be debated?
True News
Where Are the City Council Hearing About the Increase in Crime in NYCHA Buildings?
Monday Update
City politicians push for more cops in crime-ridden NYCHA buildings(NYDN) With major crimes shooting up 31% at public housing projects, Public Advocate Letitia James and Councilman Ritchie Torres are calling on the NYPD to assign more officers and add features to make residents safe.
Pols Hold Their Press Conferences Before the 2012 Election, But, Don't Stick Around to Solve the Crime Problem
UNSAFE AT HOME: Residents live in fear inside New York's public housing as crime skyrockets — the Daily News investigates(NYDN)
In the last five
years, the New York City Housing Authority projects saw a 31% spike in
major crimes, while the rest of the city experienced a 3.3% increase,
records obtained exclusively by the Daily News show. Some public housing
residents say they are afraid to leave their homes or even open their
doors. “It’s out of control. It’s out of hand,” declared a frustrated
Patricia
Herman, 61, who’s lived in the Lincoln Houses in East Harlem since 1979.
At Lincoln, murders, rapes, assaults, robberies, burglaries, auto theft
and grand larcenies — known as the “seven majors”— nearly doubled from
33 in 2009 to 60 last year.Flashback In 2010 the city was sued for NYPD vertical patrol at NYCHA buildings. What do you think the tenants living in fear today in public housing think about the vertical patrols ending?* What security cameras can't see - 219 Magazine
NYC's public housing, the largest in the country, has 180K apartments, w/almost 250K families on the waiting list. via
NYCHA Soylent Green Seniors
Seniors face eviction if they don't move to smaller apartments: NYCHA(NYDN) More than 6,500 seniors living in public housing face eviction if they don’t agree to relocate to smaller apartments, NYCHA revealed Wednesday during a City Council hearing. Questioning from City Council members and Public Advocate Letitia James at the hearing centered around the sick and elderly who go through tremendous shock or strain if moved to a new, unfamiliar apartment that may not be suited to their needs.
Seniors face eviction if they don't move to smaller apartments: NYCHA
Rent Board, Rent Freeze PromiseRenters Hope for Promised Freeze as de Blasio Prepares to Fill Guidelines Board(NYT)
Fixing Sandy Damaged NYCHA Boilers
Before superstorm Sandy, George Kasimos dabbled in real estate and barely followed politics—or even voted. Less than a year later, he launched something of a grass-roots political juggernaut.
#ny1sandy Schumer, de Blasio Announce $100M to Replace Temporary Boilers in City Housing Buildings
Big Apple Landlords Suing To Stop Gov. Cuomo's Tenant Advocacy Unit
Mayor stops NYCHA police payments, but for how long?
* The Daily News writes that the settlement between New York City Housing Authority residents and the city is a stinging indictment of the horrors residents have faced, and now it is up to Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio to fix NYCHA:* Exiting NYCHA chairman John Rhea says he has 'absolutely' no regrets about tenure even as hundreds of projects remain unfinished
.* NYCHA is spending $3 million each month for temporary boilers at housing developments affected by Hurricane Sandy, and the agency doesn’t plan to replace them until 2016, the Daily News writes: http://goo.gl/8H9fGV
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Public housing tenants enjoy posh Poconos resort at taxpayer expense(NYP)
This kind of “public housing” comes with a deluxe robe, heated bathroom
floors, free Wi-Fi and a mini-fridge. The president of the city’s
Drew-Hamilton housing project in Harlem treated herself and 24 other
tenants to a getaway at a ritzy Poconos resort last weekend — costing
taxpayers at least $15,000, The Post has learned. Calling it a “women’s
empowerment retreat,” the tenants stayed two nights at the lakeside
Bushkill Inn and Conference Center with the tab paid by the New York
City Housing Authority.
_____________________________________
Public Housing
NYC settles its suit with suspect hotels(WSJ)
1/31/2013
NYCHA Repairs
Bloomberg is expected to pledge today that the Housing Authority’s scandalous backlog of 340,000 apartment repair orders will be history by year’s end. Bloomberg says NYCHA is out nearly a billion dollars in fed funding sine 2001.Bloomberg says goal by the end of his term is to leave NYCHA better off than he found it. Current repair backlog at @nycha: more than 400,000. By Jan. 14, @MikeBloomberg says it will be below 50,000
1/25/2013
City Council eyes NYCHA reforms(NYDN) The New York City Council plans to
announce reforms to the city Housing Authority today, including a change
to the agency’s automated system that tenants say loses their
application and then moves to evict them 1/21/2013
Hide and Seek NYCHA's Chairman Rhea
NYCHA chair skipped hearing on Sandy today. His staff told @nyccouncil he had jury duty. He did not have jury duty
* Elderly woman found living in NYCHA housing squalor(WABC) Hide and seek (NYDN Ed) It is fitting that New York City Housing Authority Chairman John Rhea was the man who wasn’t there for two legislative hearings about his beleaguered agency this week. Because, time and again since he took over in 2009, Rhea also hasn’t been there for the 400,000 New Yorkers who live in the authority’s developments. On Thursday, the City Council was holding hearings on NYCHA’s shoddy performance during and after superstorm Sandy hit — a performance that left thousands of residents desperate and suffering far longer than they should have been.
1/18/2013
NYCHA chair skipped hearing on Sandy today. His staff told @nyccouncil he had jury duty. He did not have jury duty
'It
creates the impression they're trying to hide something from us':
Council Speaker Christine Quinn baffled by NYCHA actions, Chairman John
Rhea's whereabouts (NYDN) NYCHA
informs Quinn that Rhea was absent from Thursday's Council hearing due
to jury duty, then backtracks, before showing up to the crucial
discussion that focused on their Superstorm Sandy blunders without
disaster readiness plans the committee demanded to see.*
#nyccouncil Speaker Christine Quinn baffled by #NYCHA actions, Chairman John Rhea * Second Day Of Sandy Hearings Focuses On Housing Authority(NY1)
* Elderly woman found living in NYCHA housing squalor(WABC)
1/17/2013
NYCHA chair skipped hearing on Sandy today. His staff told @nyccouncil he had jury duty. He did not have jury duty
'It
creates the impression they're trying to hide something from us':
Council Speaker Christine Quinn baffled by NYCHA actions, Chairman John
Rhea's whereabouts (NYDN) NYCHA
informs Quinn that Rhea was absent from Thursday's Council hearing due
to jury duty, then backtracks, before showing up to the crucial
discussion that focused on their Superstorm Sandy blunders without
disaster readiness plans the committee demanded to see.*
#nyccouncil Speaker Christine Quinn baffled by #NYCHA actions, Chairman John Rhea
1/6/2013
Broken Housing
Chairman John Rhea — an investment banker with no previous housing experience — spending millions in a constantly shifting search for ways to fix what’s broken.
NYCHA spends twice for consultants(NYDN) NYCHA
drops $26 million to advice-givers in the last five years. The nation’s
largest public housing authority faces an annual $50
million budget gap and a backlog of 340,000 repairs to its deteriorating
apartments. Some 10,000 of those repairs won’t be made until 2014.
The News urges Bloomberg to fire the
top leadership of the city’s public housing authority on the grounds of
“rank and harmful incompetence”
The New York City Housing Authority board has been hoarding $1 billion in federal funds since 2009, which it
is supposed to spend on building renovations and improvements for
400,000 low-income residents, the Daily News discovers: * Angry Housing Authority residents offer suggestions NYDN) * Do you duty, Mayor
Bloomberg must fire the entire top leadership of the New York City
Housing Authority on grounds of rank and harmful incompetence. Chairman
John Rhea and board members Emily Youssouf, Margarita Lopez
and Victor Gonzalez have utterly failed to rescue tens of thousands of
New Yorkers from substandard and even dangerous conditions — while
sitting on almost $1 billion targeted for critically needed maintenance
and renovations. * 
NYC Comptroller
Why Not Camp Out At the Housing Authority?
Housing advocates are planning a week-long campout in Washington Square Park.The News’s Denis Hamill slams the city’s public housing board for its lack of professionalism, including showing up late to its own public hearing
City housing resident Carol Demech tells NYCHA board: ‘The next murder is on you guys!’ (NYDN) Being
NYCHA Chairman John Rhea and members Emily Youssouf and Margarita Lopez
means never having to say you're sorry for strolling in late to
meetings or sitting on a billion bucks and fiddling while city housing
residents live with high crime and squalor
Daily News KeepPounding NYC Housing Authority Leaders
Letter to Mayor Bloomberg last year warned of NYCHA’s failures(NYDN) City leaders turned blind eye to complaints as wasted funds, delayed repairs and health risks added up. The News calls out Bloomberg for
ignoring a civic group’s letter warning of the city’s public housing
authority’s “incompetence and sloth”* NYC housing officials, in addition to sitting on nearly $1 billion in
federal funds, were too inept to collect another $600 million in
available revenue, a civic improvement group charged last year.* @MikeBloomberg: DailyNews subjecting NYCHA head to "character assassination."* Bloomberg continues to defend NYCHA chief John Rhea (NYDN)
Using Cameras to Bust Gangs While Backing Off Installing More Cameras in Housing Authority Projects Promise
New York City Housing Authority
Chairman John Rhea praised the use of security cameras in a Harlem drug
bust, one day after backing off a promise to install new cameras in 80
housing projects NYCHA boss' double-talk on security cameras John Rhea backs off promise as he praises takedown of drug gang * City public housing officials, in
addition to sitting on $1 billion in federal funds, did not collect
another $600 million in revenue, the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation
charged last year in a letter to Bloomberg, the News writes: * 19 charged in crack-dealing sweep in Manhattan(WABC) * Cy Vance’s office said they broke up two well-known gangs in Harlem with a score of arrests.
The city’s public housing authority spent $320,000 on a two-day staff rally at the Javits Center in March, even though the agency is mired in debt and unable to repair crumbling apartments
NYCHA PR BJ
Administration Tries to Cover Their Ass As Daily News Continues the AttackThe city’s public housing authority spent $320,000 on a two-day staff rally at the Javits Center in March, even though the agency is mired in debt and unable to repair crumbling apartments
NYCHA spends $325G on a pep talk and $100G to jazz up its website, but major apt. fixes can wait until 2014!(NYDN) Mandatory
cheerleading session led by Chairman John Rhea at Javits Center cost
$200G in rent and polishing Housing Authority's 'brand' was also at top
of to-do list *
The Daily News continues its investigation into NYCHA, this time looking into widespread mold that goes untreated.
Gale A. Brewer 
