Establishes the public housing revitalization fund to provide monies to the New York City Housing Authority for the repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation and upgrade of projects of such authority

Section two amends the public housing law by adding a new section 77, which lays out the requirements under which the State would appropriate moneys to NYCHA from the public housing revitalization fund. Funds can be appropriated to NYCHA for the repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation and upgrade of NYCHA developments that require work to fix poor structural conditions, such as problems with walls, roofs, elevators, heating systems including boilers, electrical systems, water pipes, or other such deficiencies.

No moneys shall be appropriated from this fund after January 1st, 2017 unless the Commissioner of DHCR certifies that NYCHA has submitted a reform plan that lays out proposals for streamlining and improving NYCHA's operations. Such a report would include recommendations on policy changes such as implementing a property centric management model; ways in which repair and maintenance policies can be changed to cut wait times significantly; centralizing procurement and cutting proposal wait times significantly; improving customer service; reducing internal bureaucracy and improving cycle times; and developing a long term financial sustainability plan to be updated biannually.

Section three sets an effective date of one hundred twenty days after this act shall have become a law.

Justification

NYCHA is the largest housing authority in the United States, and its over 179,000 units are home to more than 400,000 New Yorkers. Unfortunately, conditions at many NYCHA developments are deplorable. NYCHA has been called the worst landlord in NYC. A recent report by the NYC Comptroller found that more than a third of all NYCHA units had some form of deficiency. The latest NYC Housing and Vacancy Survey found that more than 30% of YCHA units experience water leaks, and more than a quarter had suffered from breakdowns in heating equipment. Not only were conditions at NYCHA apartments worse than those for any other class of housing stock in NYC, but these figures represented a worrying decline in the quality of NYCHA housing over the past few years.

NYCHA needs fiscal assistance to fix these problems. The federal government is the main source of support for capital needs at NYCHA, but this support has been declining over the past few years as the federal government cuts back on funds available for public housing. Most NYCHA development are more than four decades old, and a long term underinvestment in its stock has created a massive capital needs gap. NYCHA currently estimates that unmet capital needs are close to $18 billion.

It's crucial that the State and the City work together to provide relief for NYCHA's residents by making more capital funding available for the repair of NYCHA projects whose poor conditions place residents in harm's way. This proposed fund would make money available to fix the more dangerous deficiencies, like leaking roofs, broken boilers and elevators, and cracked walls. The State would make moneys available for this purpose in the same amounts as New York City.

Even as this legislation recognizes the pressing needs for funds to repair and rehabilitate aging NYCHA developments, it acknowledges that for many years the administration of NYCHA has not been up to the massive tasks it faces. The State needs to have confidence that the resources it would make available will make a difference, and in order to have that confidence this legislation would mandate that NYCHA submit a comprehensive reform plan before any funds would be disbursed after January 1st, 2016. This comprehensive plan would have to detail how NYCHA would streamline its maintenance operations to cut wait times for repairs, improve its procurement practices to cut costs and speed up orders, reform management practices so that residents receive more reliable service, and create a long term financial viability plan that would be updated bi-annually.

Prior legislative history

This is a new bill.

Fiscal implications

The amount that the State would appropriate to this fund would be based on how much money the City of New York makes available for the purpose of repairing, rehabilitating, reconstructing, or upgrading NYCHA developments in poor conditions.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the hundred twentieth day after it shall have become a law.