Res. No. 190
Resolution calling upon the New York State Legislature and Governor to provide their share of the additional three billion dollars annually, that must be reinvested into NYCHA in order to address capital needs resulting from decades of disinvestment in its building stock.
By Council Members Avilés, Louis, Hanif, Brewer, Joseph, Nurse, Abreu, Restler, Won, Cabán, Sanchez, Riley, Ossé, Richardson Jordan, Rivera, Williams, Krishnan, De La Rosa, Brooks-Powers, Hudson, Ayala and Schulman
Whereas, The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is the largest public housing authority in North America, providing homes for over 6% of New York City residents or approximately 550,000 people, across 177,611 apartments within 335 housing developments; and
Whereas, Formed in 1935 with a mission statement of providing decent, affordable housing for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers, NYCHA has suffered from decades of disinvestment at the federal, state, and city level; and
Whereas, More than half of the affordable housing in New York City that is accessible to residents with incomes at or below 30% of the area median income is located within NYCHA developments; and
Whereas, NYCHA is prohibited from charging residents more than 30% of their household income in rent, and must rely on federal, state, and city subsidies to cover the difference between rental income and maintenance and operation costs; and
Whereas, Since 2000, NYCHA has faced severe federal funding shortfalls, consistently receiving less money than it is eligible for under United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) formulas; and
Whereas, NYCHA housing units that were constructed with state funds and thus ineligible for federal funding under Section 9, were further burdened when New York State terminated operating support for those units in 1998; and
Whereas, Chronic disinvestment has forced NYCHA to reduce staffing and defer necessary maintenance, leading to a continued decline in the condition of its housing stock, and significantly increasing the cost and complexity of the work necessary to bring its buildings back to a state of good repair; and
Whereas, Shortfalls in NYCHA’s operating subsidies have caused the agency to respond by transferring funds from its capital subsidy to cover operating costs, with 54 million dollars of NYCHA’s federal capital subsidy used to cover daily operating costs instead of being put towards capital improvements of buildings in 2017; and
Whereas, Funding cuts have directly correlated with an increase in NYCHA complaints for heat and hot water outages, leaks, mold, peeling paint, and pest issues. From 2005 to 2017, NYCHA housing went from having comparable or lower deficiency rates than private-sector low-income housing to having rates over twice as high; and
Whereas, Inadequate access to heat and hot water, exposure to lead paint, mold, and pest issues can have severe deleterious long-term consequences for the health and wellbeing of NYCHA residents; and
Whereas, The advocacy group Citizens Budget Commission, warns that absent dramatic efforts to address the material conditions within the agency’s building stock within the next 10 years, nearly 90 percent of NYCHA’s housing units could be at risk of deteriorating beyond the point at which it is cost-effective to repair; and
Whereas, NYCHA’s current plan to address funding shortages by privatizing the management of certain buildings via the Rental Assistance Determination/Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (RAD/PACT) has been criticized for overstating the program’s ability to attract private unsubsidized funding; and
Whereas, There are concerns that RAD/PACT conversions negatively affect tenant access to services and protections afforded to them under NYCHA tenancy, and preliminary evidence that eviction rates are higher in converted buildings; and
Whereas, A recent report from Community Preservation Corporation, a nonprofit affordable housing financing company, argues the city and state will each need to allocate an additional $1.5 billion annually for the comprehensive modernization of whole developments, in order to address the decades of disinvestment and the resulting deterioration of conditions in NYCHA’s building stock; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the New York State Legislature and Governor to provide their share of the additional three billion dollars annually, that must be reinvested into NYCHA in order to address capital needs resulting from decades of disinvestment in its building stock.
NRC
LS#7405
5/23/2022