NYCHA Apartments Fell Apart As Private Homes Improved: Study

NEW YORK — NYCHA could use a handyman. Apartments in New York City's public housing network have continued to fall apart even as conditions in privately owned homes have improved, a new study shows.

New York City Housing Authority households reported five types of physical deficiencies at higher rates in 2017 than the rest of the city's rentals, according to the Citizens Budget Commission review of U.S. Census data published Wednesday.

Some 28 percent of NYCHA homes reported heating breakdowns last year, up from 24 percent in 2014, and 30 percent reported water leaks, up from 28 percent. More than four in 10 reported broken plaster or peeling paint in both 2014 and 2017, the watchdog group's report shows.

But the share of all other rental units with such problems fell in all five categories, the report shows. The most common issue, water leaks, was reported by just 14 percent of non-NYCHA households last year, less than half the rate for public-housing homes.

Even old apartments did better than NYCHA. Tenants of rent-stabilized buildings built before 1947 reported every problem except holes in floors at lower rates than NYCHA residents, the report shows.

"The growing gap in building quality between NYCHA and other rental housing units should deepen the urgency of efforts to improve conditions at NYCHA," the report reads.

The degenerating conditions reflect the dire state of NYCHA's public housing buildings, which are home to about 400,000 New Yorkers with an average family income of less than $25,000 a year.

The beleaguered housing authority, beset by a string of recent scandals, has a nearly $32 billion to-do list of repair and replacement work for the next five years amid disinvestment from the federal government, its primary funding source.

Wednesday's study "demonstrates the results of the government walking away from public housing," NYCHA spokeswoman Jasmine Blake said, noting the housing authority's recent change in leadership. Stanley Brezenoff took over as interim chairman earlier this year after former Chairwoman Shola Olatoye resigned.

"For decades the federal government has continued to cut support for public housing leaving NYCHA with $32 billion in need today," Blake said in a statement. "... But our new leadership is committed to working with leaders at all levels to ensure that the 1 in 14 New Yorkers who rely on us have the homes they deserve for this generation and the next."

The city committed to giving NYCHA an extra $1 billion in capital funds over the next four years in a settlement with federal prosecutors, in which the housing authority admitted to falsely saying it had performed lead paint inspections that were never done.

Still, NYCHA residents are languishing in "some of the worst building conditions in the city" as they wait for repairs, the Citizens Budget Commission report says.

"Without decisive action, these units will continue to deteriorate; many will soon reach the point at which it is no longer cost-effective to repair them," the report reads.

(Lead image: An empty stairwell is pictured in a Brooklyn public housing building in June 2018. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)