NEW YORK CITY—The de Blasio administration on Tuesday unveiled the long-awaited overhaul of the New York City Housing Authority, currently facing what Mayor Bill de Blasio called “the worst financial crisis” in the authority's 81-year history. He said the 10-year plan intends to reduce NYCHA's costs and “make it more efficient and more effective in serving over 400,000 New Yorkers” who live in the city's 178,000 units of public housing.

Due in part to decades of “disinvestment” at the state and federal level, NYCHA faces nearly $2.5 billion in projected operating deficits over the next decade, along with nearly $17 billion in unmet capital needs for major infrastructure repairs. “Since 2001, NYCHA has lost over $2 billion that would have been coming to it, had the previous patterns of state and federal support continued,” de Blasio said Tuesday.

Looking at the state of NYCHA-managed housing stock, “that disinvestment has taken its toll,” the mayor said. “So many of our buildings have fallen into disrepair, and we don't find that an acceptable situation.”

Calling the “NextGeneration NYCHA” plan a game-changer, de Blasio said the program would “transform the Housing Authority, bring it into the 21st century and make it strong for the long haul. It's long overdue, and it's finally here.”

Hammered out over the course of a year from meetings with more than 150 NYCHA stakeholders, residents and elected officials, the plan seeks to reduce NYCHA's capital needs by $4.6 billion and produce a cumulative operating surplus of over $200 million over the next 10 years. It identifies 15 strategies that serve four goals: achieving short-term financial stability and diversifying NYCHA funding for the long term; streamlining the authority's property management; rebuilding, expanding and preserving the city's public and affordable housing stock; and connecting NYCHA residents to best-in-class social services, rather than having the authority provide these services itself.

It's under the heading of the third goal—rebuilding and expanding the housing stock—that the plan would seek to sell “underutilized” NYCHA-owned property to developers with an eye toward building 10,000 affordable housing units, thereby generating about $200 million over a 10-year period. NYCHA will also explore a limited number of mixed-income developments on underutilized land over the next decade, with 50% of new housing at these projects dedicated to low-income families making no more than 60% of the area median income.

Furthermore, the plan seeks to leverage HUD preservation programs. NYCHA would renovate and upgrade thousands of units by maximizing the more prevalent and flexible federal subsidy available through Section 8.

“Without meaningful changes to the way NYCHA does business, our residents will continue to feel left behind and the future of public housing will remain in jeopardy,” says Shola Olatoye, chair and CEO of NYCHA. “Since we can't solve today's problems with yesterday's solutions, NextGen aims to transform NYCHA into a modern landlord with sound finances and effective property management.”

Instant Insights /

De Blasio Unveils NYCHA Revamp

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