#NYCHA boss plans to revamp housing units by handing city-owned corporation

The New York City Housing Authority unveiled plans Tuesday to boost federal funding for Gotham’s public housing by handing two-thirds of its apartments to a new city-owned corporation — but the embattled authority would still handle day-to-day operation of the units.

“As the largest public housing authority in the nation, NYCHA confronts complex and unique challenges,” NYCHA chairman Greg Russ said in a statement. “Our Blueprint document offers a set of options that can position us as a stable, sustainable resource in New York City, which we have served since 1935 and will continue to serve for generations to come.”

The new “blueprint” finally provides a possible future for the 110,000 units that were not covered by NYCHA’s other major revamp plan, NYCHA 2.0.

That program aims to use public-private partnerships to pay for major upgrades at 62,000 apartments across the city, which account for roughly one-third of the agency’s housing stock.

All told, NYCHA estimates that it will cost $40 billion to get all of its 172,000 units back to a state of good repair.

This latest rescue plan aims to secure additional funding to pay for badly needed revamps at those 110,000 units by moving their ownership to the new municipal corporation, which would make them eligible for an additional $650 per unit in federal funds every month — something unavailable under NYCHA ownership, officials said.

It would also cut the costs of operating each unit by more than $1,000 per year with more preventative maintenance and using new technology to cut down on energy usage. For instance, Russ suggested replacing its ancient massive boilers and other centralized systems with more modular and modern setups as one key way to reduce costs.

Rents would remain set at 30 percent of income for residents.

This new municipal corporation idea is modeled after the city’s School Construction Authority and would take over the ownership and management of construction projects of each complex. It would contract back to NYCHA to provide management and maintenance.

At least three major hurdles still remain. Federal regulators must sign off on the plan, state lawmakers in Albany must approve establishing the new corporation and Congress will have to allocate more money for the housing voucher program.

Officials hope the combined “blueprint” and NYCHA 2.0 plans will finally fix the damage caused by decades of budget cuts and mismanagement that left more than 381,000 New Yorkers living in scandalous conditions — including with mold infestations, elevator breakdowns, heating outages and growing worries about exposure to lead.