Wait & see, say officials and tenants

A ShameFUL reCord

AS AN UNPRECEDENTED federal intervention to cure NYCHA’s chronic ills emerged in lower Manhattan on Monday, Jennifer de Jesus sat in the Patterson Houses in the Bronx inhaling the musky odor of rancid mold that covers her bathroom wall.

“I can smell the mold from the bathroom,” said de Jesus, 44. “I can be in my room watching TV.”

De Jesus’ tale — that she’s asked repeatedly for repairs that never came — is emblematic of the problems outlined in an alarming complaint Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman filed Monday.

De Jesus and the 400,000 other NYCHA tenants who have put up with these conditions for years hope that Berman’s call for a federal monitor will turn things around.

Elected officials weighed in Monday with varying degrees of optimism. Gov. Cuomo (bottom inset) suspended his order requiring the appointment of an emergency manager over NYCHA, hopeful that the monitor will do the trick.

He called the monitor “a big step forward” that will bring in a “new professional management” so progress can start to be made.

City Controller Scott Stringer (top inset) praised the monitor plan, but suggested NYCHA should rely on a single executive, not the dueling bosses of chairman/CEO and a general manager now in place.

“NYCHA needs a single executive leader with a clear mandate and accountability, not today’s divided board structure with a chair and general manager operating as separate fiefs,” he said.

City Council Oversight Committee Chairman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) called the settlement “a dark moment for public trust in government,” laying the blame squarely on NYCHA’s leadership and Mayor de Blasio.

And Councilman Mark Gjonaj (DBronx) called for the Council to start a perjury investigation “to uncover any and all misleading and false testimony provided by NYCHA leadership in previous testimony before the Council.”