NYCHA, Blas go $low

Dragged feet on bid to get state funding

Mayor de Blasio complains that the state hasn’t provided “a whole lot of help” to make desperately needed repairs at New York City Housing Authority buildings — but his administration took seven months to file a funding request for $200 million.

That request is now being processed.

Officials said the city could have filed its request as early as April but waited until Nov. 16 — two days after the Department of Investigation disclosed that NYCHA failed to perform leadpaint inspections and lied to the federal government about it.

“We have asked the state for more help. We haven’t seen a whole lot of help,” de Blasio groused Tuesday at a press conference on affordable housing.

“You know, hope springs eternal.”

This winter, NYCHA has failed to provide consistent heat and hot water to hundreds of tenants, prompting demands that the city replace or repair old boilers and pipes.

Last Sunday, a Crown Heights family in a NYCHA building was forced from its apartment after a ceiling collapsed.

Gov. Cuomo’s administration is reviewing the city’s spending plan for thee $200 million in state funding, which would be split evenly to repair boilers and elevators. Cuomo in his State of the State speech this month announced plans for increased state oversight of the mega-housing agency. “The state is currently reviewing the proposal for the 2017-18 funding, which the city only submitted in the middle of November despite having since last April to submit it,” said Cuomo spokeswoman Dani Lever. “If it wwere such a priority for the city, it could have submitted the proposal earlier."

Lever sasaid Team Cuomo is “reviewing the projects as quickly as possible so we can help ensure NYCHA residents have safe and decent places to call home.”

But de Blasio still says it’s the state that’s not moving fast enough.

“We submitted a plan to fix the worst boilers and elevators in public housing,” said City Hall spokeswoman Olivia Lapeyrolerie.

“It’s not clear why the state has taken more than two months to approve our important, straightforward proposal to help more than 42,000 tenants.”

Lapeyrolerie said there’s no correlation between the leadpaint revelations in November and the $200 million request.

Politico first reported the delay in the city’s request to the state.