No new cash for NYCHA in Cuomo’s executive budget
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NYCHA tenants have been beset by lead paint, crumbling infrastructure and broken boilers. Photo by William Alatriste via City Council/Flickr
By David Brand
Update [Jan. 27, 2019, 1:56 p.m.] — This story has been updated with a response from the Governor’s budget office.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget, released Tuesday, includes no new funding for NYCHA, despite mounting physical problems that require tens of billions of dollars to address at public housing campuses across the city.
Rather than provide new money to fix New York City’s ailing public housing system, the executive budget reallocates $100 million that was directed to NYCHA last year, and $250 million that was originally allocated in 2018. That money is part of a $450 million agreement between the state, NYCHA and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York to pay for boiler and elevator upgrades at the city’s public housing complexes. NYCHA must seek approval from a federal monitor appointed to oversee NYCHA operations before spending the money.
The agency needs an estimated $31.8 billion over five years and $45.2 billion over 20 years to pay for necessary repairs and maintenance, a consulting firm hired by NYCHA to conduct a physical needs assessment determined in 2017.
“We’re immensely disappointed that in the face of actual needs of NYCHA — while NYCHA is in crisis and residents living in deplorable conditions — this administration is ignoring the needs of more than 600,000 New Yorkers and continues to do so,” said Legal Aid Law Reform Unit attorney Lucy Newman, who advocates for more funding for public housing.
More than 380,000 authorized tenants currently reside in NYCHA’s 134,084 apartments, according to agency reports, but the actual population is likely closer to 600,000, according to other city agency estimates. The federal housing administrator who oversees NYCHA has even pegged the population at 1 million.
Toxic lead paint, faulty boilers, busted elevators and other capital needs have beset NYCHA tenants for decades, particularly in the oldest buildings, which date back to the Great Depression. Queens is home to 21 NYCHA sites, including the Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing complex in the United States.
Councilmember Donovan Richards, a member of the Committee on Public Housing, said he anticipates the state Assembly and Senate will address the lack of NYCHA funding in their budgets.
Nevertheless, he added, “it is definitely disappointing that the needs of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers were not reflected in the administration’s proposal.”
“After decades of disinvestment from all levels of government, it is absolutely critical that everyone steps up to address the issues of lead paint, aging boilers, mold, chronically broken elevators and overall quality of life,” Richards continued.
State Sen. Julia Salazar, a member of the Senate’s Housing Committee, said she plans to advocate for additional funding for NYCHA in the one-house budget. “I could not support a final budget that fails to provide desperately needed support for the hundreds of thousands of public housing tenants across the state,” Salazar said.
The Housing Justice For All coalition has called on the state to provide $3 billion to improve public housing statewide — $2 billion for NYCHA sites and another $1 billion for public housing elsewhere in the state.
“I've been a New York City public housing resident for over thirty years, and I have seen how decades of disinvestment at the federal, state, and city level has hurt public housing residents,” said NYCHA tenant Rose Fernandez, a member-leader of the organization Community Voices Heard, in a statement last year. “The idea is simple: in the richest country in the world, we can and we must guarantee that everyone has a safe, sustainable, healthy and truly affordable home.”
Cuomo’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
A spokesperson for NYCHA said the public housing authority plans to continue working with state lawmakers to obtain additional funding.
“There’s a lot that needs to be done between now and April when the budget is finalized and we look forward to working with the Legislature and the Governor to secure the funds that NYCHA residents need and deserve,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
UPDATE: A spokesperson for the New York State Division of the Budget responded with the following statement:
“For years the New York City Housing Authority was underfunded by the Federal government and its administrators, and to help, New York State stepped up and made an unprecedented commitment to NYCHA for reliable heat, safe elevators and a better quality of life. In all, the Executive Budget includes $650 million in ongoing support for NYCHA projects so that their 400,000 residents will finally see results.”
