The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) provides housing for low and moderate income residents throughout the five boroughs of New York City. NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program in rental apartments. These communities are often referred to in popular culture as "projects", or "developments". These facilities commonly have large income disparities with their respective surrounding neighborhood or community.
The New York City Housing Authority's mission is to increase opportunities for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers by providing safe, affordable housing and facilitating access to social and community services. More than 400,000 New Yorkers reside in NYCHA's 328 public housing developments across the City’s five boroughs. Another 235,000 receive subsidized rental assistance in private homes through the NYCHA-administered Section 8 Leased Housing Program.
List of properties
Applying to a New York City Affordable Housing Lottery: Video Guide -
Governance
NYCHA is a New York state public-benefit corporation organized under the Public Housing Law. The NYCHA ("NYCHA Board") consists of seven members, of which the chairman is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the Mayor of New York City, while the others are appointed for three-year terms by the mayor.
Operations
The Authority is the largest public housing authority (PHA) in North America. In spite of many problems, it is still considered by experts to be the most successful big-city public housing authority in the country. Whereas most large public housing authorities in the United States (Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, etc.) have demolished their high-rise projects and in most cases replaced them with lower scale housing, New York's continue to be fully occupied. Most of its market-rate housing is also in high-rise buildings.
NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program in rental apartments. However, new applications for Section 8 have not been accepted since December 10, 2009.
New York also maintains a long waiting list for its apartments. Because of demand, the Housing Authority in recent years, has selected more "working families" from applicants to diversify the income structure of occupants of its housing, as had been typical of residents who first occupied the facilities. NYCHA's Conventional Public Housing Program has 181,581 apartments (as of July 20, 2005) in 345 developments throughout the city.
NYCHA has approximately 13,000 employees serving about 176,221 families and approximately 403,120 authorized residents. Based on the 2010 census, NYCHA's Public Housing represents 8.2% of the city's rental apartments and is home to 4.9% of the city’s population. NYCHA residents and Section 8 voucher holders combined occupy 12.4% of the city's rental apartments.
In mid-2007, NYCHA faced a $225 million budget shortfall.
In late 2015, NYCHA announced the formation of the Fund for Public Housing, a nonprofit organization that will seek to raise $200 million over three years to supplement NYCHA's efforts and improve the lives of NYC public housing residents. The Fund received its first donation of $100,000 from the Deutsche Bank in December 2015.
Statistics
- 326 developments in New York City
- Staten Island has 10 developments with 4,499 apartments
- Queens has 22 developments with 17,126 apartments
- The Bronx has 100 developments with 44,500 apartments
- Brooklyn has 98 developments with 58,669 apartments
- Manhattan has 102 developments with 53,890 apartments
- The Bronzeville, section of Chicago now has the highest concentration of low income public housing in America, following the demolition of a huge 5-mile long tract of public housing stretching along State and Federal on Chicago's South Side. While pre-Plan For Transformation Chicago Housing Authority high-rise developments tended to be much larger and more concentrated than those of the NYCHA, the NYCHA operates several times as many apartments and houses three times as many residents. East Harlem in Manhattan has the second highest concentration of public housing in the nation, closely following Brownsville.
- The Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, Queens, is now North America's largest housing project with 3,142 apartments, following the demolition of several larger Chicago housing projects, including the Cabriniâ€"Green Homes and the Robert Taylor Homes (whose 4,321 three, four and five bedroom apartments once made it the largest public housing project in the world).
- The Bronx's largest development is Edenwald Houses in Edenwald with 2,036 apartments.
- Brooklyn's largest development is Red Hook Houses in Red Hook with 2,878 apartments.
- Manhattan's largest development is Baruch Houses on the Lower East Side with 2,391 apartments
- Staten Island's largest development is Stapleton Houses in Stapleton with 693 apartments.
- 10 developments consisting of FHA Acquired Homes are located in more than one borough and total 200 apartments
- 42 developments are for seniors only; 15 seniors-only buildings exist within mixed-population developments
- NYCHA has approximately 9,822 apartments designated for seniors only
- There also are 7,639 retrofitted apartments for families of persons who are mobility impaired as of September 30, 2007
- As of April 13, 2017: 14 developments are at least 70 years old; a total of 60 developments are 60 to 69 years old; there are 75 developments 50 to 59 years old; another 89 developments are 40 to 49 years old, and 52 developments are 30 to 39 years old.
- The combined demographics of all public housing developments in New York City is about 46% Black, 44% Hispanic, 4% White, 5% Asian, and 1% other.
- NYCHA residents in Chelsea earn significantly less money than the average Chelsea resident and are almost half as likely to have a college degree.
History
NYCHA was created in 1934. At the end of 1935, NYCHA dedicated its first development, called First Houses, located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The Authority boomed in partnership with Robert Moses after World War II as a part of Moses' plan to clear old tenements and remake New York as a modern city. Moses indicated later in life that he was disappointed at how the public housing system fell into decline and disrepair. The majority of NYCHA developments were built between 1945 and 1965. Unlike most cities, New York depended heavily on city and state funds to build its housing, rather than just the federal government. Most of the postwar developments had over 1000 apartment units each, and most were built in the modernist, tower-in-the-park style popular at the time.
In 1995, the New York City Housing Authority Police Department and the New York City Transit Police were merged into the New York City Police Department by NYC Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and continues today as the New York City Police Department Housing Bureau.
NextGen NYCHA
As of May 2015, NYCHA’s overhauling is currently in progress with the proposal of ‘NextGeneration NYCHA’, a ten-year plan aimed at preserving public housing for the future generations. The multifaceted plan introduces a new strategy designed to expand and preserve public housing, improve the current infrastructure, increase stakeholder engagement, create more affordable housing and modernize the current tools connecting residents and property management. NextGeneration NYCHA, part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's affordable housing plan, is a long-term strategic plan that details how NYCHA will create safe, clean, and connected communities for our residents and preserve New York City's public housing assets for the next generation. NYCHA residents are important partners in this work.
Lawsuits
Tenant lawsuit
In February of 2018, attorney Jim Walden filed a lawsuit on behalf of 400,000 NYCHA tenants living in squalid conditions. The suit demands that the court appoint an independent monitor to oversee NYCHA because the agency failed to provide tenants with heat and hot water, keep residents safe from lead, involve tenants in policy-making, and hire residents, as required under federal law. In April 2018, under intense pressure from the lawsuit, chairwoman Shola Olatoye resigned in disgrace.
Federal lawsuit
On June 11, 2018, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman filed a lawsuit accusing NYCHA of violating health and safety regulations, exposing children to lead paint, and training its workers to deceive inspectors. According to federal prosecutors, deceptions NYCHA workers used included shutting off buildings' water supplies during inspections to hide leaks and building false walls out of plywood to hide dilapidated rooms from inspectors. That day, NYCHA settled the lawsuit by admitting to the allegations, agreeing to spend an additional $1 billion over the next four years, and by agreeing to oversight by a federal monitor.
List of Chairpersons
See also
- Public housing in the United States
- Mitchell-Lama Housing Program
- La Guardia and Wagner Archives
- Rent control in New York
- Developing Lives
- New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development
- Project Lives
References
External links
- NYCHA website
- La Guardia and Wagner Archives/New York City Housing Authority Collection
- "New York City Housing Authority collected news and commentary". The New York Times.Â