Mayor Announces NYCHA to Use Private Managers to Oversee, Maintain Public Housing

The New York Housing Authority will hand over daily management of 62,000 apartments to private developers who would make necessary repairs to the units, the mayor announced Monday.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said that nearly $13 billion in repairs will be made thanks to public private partnerships, including the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program.

Through the RAD program, apartments are converted to the federal Section 8 housing program, however, developers lease the buildings from the Housing Authority on a long-term basis and run them just like private landlords, according to a published city report. When the long-term lease expires, the property returns to NYCHA.

According to the city, NYCHA has a set of “guiding principles” concerning the rights and protections of residents under RAD that go beyond was is required by federal law.

“We have an opportunity to undo decades of neglect and mismanagement, and we have to take it,” de Blasio said in a statement. “These partnerships are one of our best-proven tools to deliver critical repairs. We look forward to working with officials, residents and advocates on this and other new strategies to make a concrete difference for the 400,000 people who call NYCHA home.”

The day-to-day management by private companies would preserve low rents through federal subsidies and would generate the billions of dollars needed in repairs, the city said, stressing that “all 62,000 apartments will be converted to Section 8 funding and remain permanently affordable.”

The roughly 140,000 residents who call these apartments home will retain their rights as public housing residents, pay rent limited to 30 percent of their income and remain in their buildings during the renovations, the city said.

Upgrades and unit work will include renovations of kitchens and bathrooms, replacing windows, elevators, boilers and roofs as well as improving common areas.

The city says that 1,395 apartments at Ocean Bar were already renovated under RAD.

The remaining thousands of units that are expected to be renovated will be upgraded on a rolling basis with an end completion goal of 2028, the city said.

In a statement, NYCHA Interim Chair and CEO Stanley Brezenoff said: “As our properties need $32 billion worth of repairs, a new and radical approach is absolutely necessary to tackle that enormous figure. This is why we are announcing a major expansion of PACT (Permanent Affordability Commitment Together) to transform 62,000 NYCHA apartments across the City by 2028, benefitting approximately 142,000 New Yorkers – more than a third of our residents – with nearly $13 billion of renovations and major repairs to their homes.”