NYCHA recidivist malfeasance continues with private sector developers

 

THE CITY  

 Last fall, city Housing Authority carpenters performing work at a public housing complex in Washington Heights made a disturbing discovery inside a tenant’s bathroom: black splotches flowering on what appeared to be a newly installed drop ceiling.

When they removed the ceiling, they found a thick coating of toxic black mold festering in the rafters behind it and covering the backside of the sheetrock.

A subsequent investigation revealed that a contractor had put up drywall over mold and water leaks in multiple apartments at the development. The examination found open mold and leak repair requests in 45 apartments — fixes the contractor had failed to address.

Another problem: The contractor who performed the inadequate work was affiliated with the private-sector developer that was about to take over management of the public housing development under a controversial program NYCHA is relying on known as Rental Assistance Demonstration — aka, RAD.

Behind the scenes, the alleged mold cover-up set off alarm bells. An investigation by THE CITY confirmed NYCHA officials quietly altered the authority’s protocols on all RAD transitions going forward, ratcheting up oversight of all properties that convert ,to private management under the program.

From now on, NYCHA said it would ensure that developers preparing a building for RAD conversion use only mold-resistant sheetrock. The developers will be provided with an apartment’s mold history — and NYCHA will follow up to make sure open repair requests are addressed.

“Due to this investigation, NYCHA has instituted better controls to protect against any confusion surrounding (RAD) conversions,” NYCHA management wrote in response to THE CITY’s questions about the mold issue.

NYCHA has made no public announcement about any of this, and it’s easy to see why: RAD has become a hot-button issue confronting the Housing Authority as it attempts to redress a history of negligence and remedy unsafe and unhealthy living conditions that have plagued many of its 400,000 tenants for decades.

Bad RAD exonerates NYCHA from filing repairs

 

 THE CITY

 One by one, the nation’s biggest public housing authority is turning over management of tens of thousands of its 175,000 apartments to the private sector.

And with every apartment that goes into private hands, long-awaited repairs are deemed “closed” — even though the fixes haven’t taken place, a housing advocacy group charged in court papers filed this week.

Instead, tenants are instructed to tell the development’s new management team about what work needs to be done. NYCHA officials — who have struggled for years to reduce a massive repair request backlog that recently hit a record 475,000 — then get to take those jobs off the books.

This bureaucratic sleight of hand is taking place under an Obama-era program called Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) in which NYCHA turns building management over to a private company while retaining ownership of the property. To date, 9,500 units have been converted, with another 12,000 to follow in the next few months.

 All told, NYCHA plans to transfer 62,000 apartments into RAD and a local version of the program called Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) by the time the transformation is complete.

This set-up allows NYCHA to raise money via up-front fees from developers, who are charged with upgrading and maintaining the complexes. The developers pocket the tenants’ rent going forward and must ensure living conditions are safe.

NYCHAleaks

Progress New York


Progress New York has obtained data, which reportedly reveals which public housing developments owned by the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, will be put into the hands of private landlords. In the interest of the public’s right to know, Progress New York has released this information.

The information was received from an anonymous source, who was motivated to share the information, in order for the public to know details about the privatisations being planned by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York City).

According to the information, the de Blasio administration plans to transfer 59,216 public housing apartments to private landlords. The information refers to the programme under which this transfer of public housing assets would take place as PACT, an Orwellian acronym for Permanent 

Affordability Commitment Together. PACT was an Agency code name used to replace Rental Assistance Demonstration, or RAD, the official programme of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has steadily gained a negative connotation due to negative reports of rent increases, civil rights violations, and evictions.

Another Orwellian term used by the Agency, Build to Preserve, is a code name that replaces infill development, which has also gained a negative connotation, particularly during the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R-New York City), who had proposed the real estate development of children’s playgrounds, parking lots, and lawns and gardens. Under Build to Preserve, 3,694 apartments were slated to be constructed as infill development. According to the information obtained by Progress New York, the Build to Preserve plans were accurate as of May 2019.
 
According to a review of the information, the information was last updated in mid-2019, and it identifies which, of the 324 NYCHA public housing developments, are slated for some form of privatisation. The information indicates that 127 NYCHA public housing developments face transfer to private landlords under PACT/RAD.