Blaz raps a takeover of NYCHA

With the city Housing Authority facing some version of federal oversight, Mayor de Blasio on Monday made clear he doesn’t want to see NYCHA placed in receivership.

The mayor’s worries emerged a week after Manhattan Federal Judge William Pauley III rejected a proposed consent decree between the mayor, NYCHA and federal prosecutors and implied that receivership should be considered as one option.

The decree had called for a monitor who would make sure NYCHA obeyed all laws and regulations regarding the maintenance of habitable apartments, but would not have direct oversight of the authority’s day-to-day operations.

A receiver would have total control of NYCHA, with the ability to hire and fire, bring in contractors and renegotiate labor agreements.

“I think it would be a huge mistake for the people of public housing,” the mayor said at a press conference Monday announcing an effort to turn over 62,000 NYCHA units to private sector building managers as a way to pay for much-needed building upgrades.

The mayor is in a bit of a bind in his bid to get control of the deteriorating public housing apartments that house 400,000 New Yorkers. He signed off on the consent decree that the judge has rejected, and is now back to the drawing board along with NYCHA and Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman to come up with a plan the judge will accept.

Twice now the judge has mentioned receivership — first during a September hearing when he asked prosecutors why that option wasn’t part of the decree — then again last week in his 52-page decision rejecting that deal.

During negotiations on the consent decree, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development — which provides NYCHA with most of its funding — balked at taking over the authority under an administrative receivership. The other option is the judge could appoint a receiver who would report directly to him.

Either way, de Blasio said he’s against it.

“I’d rather stay with a plan we know we can achieve rather than opening up a whole other world,” he said.