NYCHA woes may haunt Bill on the national stage

As Mayor de Blasio again pursues his dream of national prominence, he will have to carry with him five crucial letters: NYCHA.

The dysfunction that had long percolated at the nation's biggest housing authority flowered into a full-blown disaster on his watch.

"The gross mismanagement of NYCHA will cast a long shadow over the mayor's national persona,” said City Councilman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx), head of the investigations committee and a frequent critic of NYCHA's failings.

Following revelation after revelation of managerial malpractice and a persistent inability to fix 175,000 deteriorating apartments, the federal government was forced to step in in June, and years of lies and coverup were laid bare.

The mayor has repeatedly minimized the problem of lead contamination of children living in NYCHA, insisting throughout that only a handful of children registered elevated blood-lead levels. That downplaying of the problem stands in painful contrast to de Blasio's take in 2013, when he was public advocate and running for mayor.

In a letter sent in July of that year, de Blasio worried that thousands of tenant work-order requests — including lead paint removal — had gone unanswered. “Outstanding work order requests for asbestos and lead paint removal are among the most troubling given the health risks posed by these materials,” he wrote.

Given the concerns he expressed in that 2013 letter, why, he was asked, did NYCHA's lead paint failures continue long after he arrived at City Hall?

He argued that his response was to steer more money into NYCHA, stating, “If you look at that letter, and I have recently, it refers to the fact that the repairs were not being made or were not being made accurately, on a whole host of things . ... But, rhe fullness of the lead issue did not come forward until later.”