Private Management Promised to Fix Public Housing

"Such has been the case again and again at 807 Schenck Avenue in East New York. Nine times in the last three years, HPD had to hire vendors to do more than $15,000 in repairs there, including fixing faulty fire-safety doors. Sometimes the contractors couldn't even do the work because, HPD alleges, the building owner refused access to properties where a violation had occurred. What's unusual about this is that the landlord who owns the Schenck Avenue building is actually the public. It's part of the Boulevard Houses, a development 100 percent owned by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)."

"Since 2017, NYCHA has touted RAD as the solution to its problems, placing more and more of its public housing apartments in the hands of private-sector managers. More than 40,000 units are now under RAD, with another 22,000 set to head that way in the next three years. And though NYCHA has from the start vowed to carefully monitor developments managed and maintained by private entities, the authority has never publicly disclosed the existence of thousands of housing code violations in RAD developments since they went under private management."

When landlords fail to address serious housing code violations, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development hires contractors using taxpayer dollars and then bills the landlord for the work plus fees. At 807 Schenck Avenue HPD hired vendors nine times in three years to complete more than $15,000 in repairs, including fixing faulty fire-safety doors, and sometimes contractors could not access properties. The Schenck Avenue building is owned by NYCHA but managed under the federal RAD program by private managers. More than 40,000 units are under RAD, with 22,000 more planned, and over 14,200 housing code violations occurred in RAD developments since January 2021, including nearly 400 cases requiring HPD contractor action.

Read at Brownstoner