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A Little Perspective on NYCHA
August 14, 2012
NYCHA's not necessarily the bad guy here.
The New York Daily News has been running a torrent of articles accusing the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) of deplorable conditions, unspent funds, gross mismanagement, and worse. Some local politicians have jumped on the issue, calling for federal oversight hearings on NYCHA and a restructuring of NYCHA’s leadership. ANHD strongly supports the efforts of NYCHA residents to organize and demand decent living conditions and fair treatment from a cumbersome bureaucracy. But at the same time, let’s have a little perspective on NYCHA’s problems, and which party bears most of the blame. NYCHA is by far the largest affordable housing provider in America. NYCHA provides an apartment or a housing voucher to nearly 630,000 city residents. That is more than the entire population of Washington DC. You have probably seen the photos of “failed” public housing authority projects being demolished in Chicago and other cities, but NYCHA should not be lumped in with other cities housing authorities. For all its very real problems, NYCHA is generally considered one of the most successful housing authorities in the country. The proof is in the waiting lists. Chicago’s worst projects couldn’t find enough tenants who wanted to live there. NYCHA has a waiting list of over 161,000 families for public housing. The major problem that NYCHA faces is not of its own doing. NYCHA faces a chronic funding shortfall that began in the Reagan Administration and has been carried on until today. HUD operating subsidies to NYCHA, for example, were cut by 35% between 2001 and 2011, causing annual operating deficit of $60 million. This operating deficit compounds an equally serious capital repair shortfall. The NYCHA housing stock is growing older – averaging 40 years – and like any aging housing is badly in need to major repairs. But, because of the operating shortfall, NYCHA has an estimated $13 billion gap in the capital funding desperately needed for major systems repair over the next 15 years. Given this financial straitjacket, it is almost impossible for NYCHA not to defer some essential repairs and maintenance. Many people believe that the Reagan Administration began to cut HUD subsidies as part of a deliberate strategy to undermine any government role in affordable housing. If you cut the operating subsidies until it is almost impossible to manage a housing authority project well, you can then point to the distressed project and declare it another example of the failure of government. New Yorkers who care about affordable housing should pressure on NYCHA to do a better job so the tenants get the decent housing they deserve, but we should not jump on the bandwagon and condemn NYCHA management without also calling out the deeper causes of the problems, and acknowledging the great service that NYCHA has long performed for our city.