CITY ON HOOK FOR $2B IN NYCHA FIXES
Blaz OKs $2B for NYCHA fixes; feds to oversee reforms
THE CITY will commit to spending up to $2.2 billion over the next 10 years to upgrade NYCHA’s ailing apartments and settle a long-running federal investigation of the Housing Authority, sources told the Daily News.
Mayor de Blasio has agreed to steer $1 billion to the city housing authority for repairs in the next four years, and then $200 million each year going forward through 2027 if necessary, the sources said.
Since 2015, prosecutors in Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman’s civil division have been investigating whether NYCHA managers made false claims about conditions in public housing apartments.
NYCHA has agreed to enter into what’s called a consent decree, which would allow a federal judge to oversee the authority’s reforms going forward. The judge would appoint an independent monitor to make sure NYCHA stays in compliance with all laws and regulations governing safety and health conditions of its apartments.
The arrangement is expected to be announced next week, with final details still being ironed out on Thursday. One issue of contention is whether the new federal monitor will supersede an emergency manager ordered by Gov. Cuomo.
Two sources told The News that the federal monitor renders the state manager moot.
On Thursday, Cuomo spokeswoman Dani Lever declined to discuss the role of the state mandated manager with a federal monitor in place.
“We don’t know what the allegations are against the city that would force them to pay such a significant amount of money for a public housing authority that it isn’t legally responsible for funding, and we will comment when we see a resolution,” Lever said.
On Thursday, de Blasio declined to address specifics of the final arrangement, which is still being ironed out.
“I would only say the federal government is clearly the top level of government, and a federal monitor changes the entire discussion,” he said.
The question arose because the mayor, the City Council and a tenant leadership group have made no apparent progress in appointing an emergency manager as required by Gov. Cuomo in an April 2 executive order.
They have until Saturday to name a manager; as of Thursday, not a single candidate had emerged.
De Blasio would only say the effort to find a manager was “intense.” Reps for the council and the tenant group, the Citywide Council of Presidents, also declined comment.
Complicating the matter, city Controller Scott Stringer announced Thursday he would not participate in the effort to name a manager. Cuomo’s order turned the process over to Stringer if the city, council and tenants failed to get the job done.
Stringer said the City Charter precludes his involvement and he would be appointing someone who he’d then have to oversee, creating a conflict of interest.