Brooklyn's Worst NYCHA Housing Needs $4B Repairs, Study Finds

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — Brooklyn's most troubled public housing complexes need more than $4 billion in repairs, according to a new analysis.

Fifteen NYCHA developments that are home to almost 40,000 Brooklynites need $4.3 billion in vital repairs over the next 20 years, according to a New York City Independent Budget Office report released Monday.

Approximately 39,000 people live in the 16,465 apartments determined to be unacceptable during U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development examinations in 2016 and 2018, the study shows.

Among the worst developments are Bed-Stuy's Brevoort Houses, where tenants went weeks without water last summer, Fort Greene's Whitman Houses, where residents report dangerous construction and repeated heating outages, and the Red Hook Houses which aren't expected to get needed post-Sandy repairs until 2021, almost a decade after the storm hit.

The $4.3 billion in renovations should be divided equally between in-home repairs, architectural problems and mechanical work such as faulty wiring and broken elevators, analysts found, but they did not elaborate on who might pay for it.

NYCHA's $3.3 billion annual budget comes primarily from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which covers about 60 percent, as well as from residents who cover about 30 percent of the budget, and the city, which provided just $142,985 in 2018.

The money is meant to go toward maintenance, repairs and capital projects, but the agency has earned widespread criticism for its lack of transparency, shoddy conditions and delayed fixes.

The IBO report worked with data from HUD and NYCHA to identify the 15 most troubled complexes and estimate the cost of repairing them at the behest of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.

“The magnitude of the crisis facing public housing in New York City demands that we investigate every possible method to save the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) from its own historical mismanagement and chronic federal divestment," Adams said in a statement.

"It is clearer than ever that the City must tap into any and all available funding streams that focus limited resources on the rehabilitation of existing units."

NYCHA's press office did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

The Walt Whitman Houses in Fort Greene are among the most troubled NYCHA building complexes in Brooklyn. Photo of the by Kathleen Culliton