NYCHA refuses to address leaked information.
By Progress New York Staff
The chief executive officer of the Local public housing agency refused to acknowledge that information identifying the public housing complexes facing some degree of privatisation was obtained and published by Progress New York.
Gregory Russ, the CEO of the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, did not respond to an e-mail seeking confirmation of the information. Also declining to comment on the information was NYCHA’s press office.
The information, obtained from an anonymous source and published by Progress New York, identified the location of 59,216 public housing apartments that the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio intends to transfer to private landlords under a Federal programme known as Rental Assistance Demonstration, or RAD. Under another programme, 3,694 apartments were slated to be constructed as infill development on rezoned lots of public housing developments. RAD goes by another acronym, PACT, or Permanent Affordability Commitment Together. Infill development is known by the NYCHA code-name of Build to Preserve, and the sale of air rights of public housing developments is known as Transfer to Preserve.
The de Blasio administration has faced increased litigation over unlawful housing policies, which have left public housing residents living in uninhabitable conditions and that have rounded up homeless families for relocation to uninhabitable conditions in across the location, including Newark, NJ.
In two litigation cases currently pending before New York State Supreme Court and U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the de Blasio administration has been accused of unlawfully approving the disposition of public housing assets. Mr. Russ, the NYCHA CEO, was reportedly recruited to carry-out Mayor de Blasio’s plan to transfer one-third (1/3) of NYCHA under RAD into the management by the private sector.