As Cuomo Pledges NYCHA Emergency, City Speeds Heat Fixes

NEW YORK, NY — The New York City Housing Authority pledged to speed up heating repairs at its complexes Thursday after Gov. Andrew Cuomo committed to declaring a state of emergency for the beleaguered agency.

Mayor Bill de Blasio in January pledged $200 million for new boilers and other upgrades to aging heating systems at 20 NYCHA developments after a period in which more than 80 percent of tenants lost heat or hot water at some point. The repairs were expected to take about four years to complete, angering some tenant leaders and lawmakers.

NYCHA plans to streamline its design, contracting and construction processes and trim the timeline by as much as a year and eight months, depending on the size of the project, city officials said Thursday.

The changes mean NYCHA will review fewer design submissions; seek permission to award contracts ahead of approval by its board; and work with other city agencies to speed up needed approvals, officials said.

"With the Mayor’s investment and commitments from our city agency partners, we are able to bring better quality heat service to 45,000 New Yorkers much faster," NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye said in a statement. "This is a tremendous effort from everyone involved."

The move came after Gov. Andrew Cuomo committed Wednesday to declaring a state of emergency for the housing authority, which tenants and lamakers say would give NYCHA better oversight and help repairs get done even faster.

Cuomo slipped the pledge into remarks criticizing de Blasio's handling of NYCHA's failures to keep the heat on and to properly check apartments for lead paint. He said the federal government could be forced to step in if the city doesn't make fixes quickly enough.

"The answer can't be to NYCHA residents, 'It's going to take us three years to turn on the heat," Cuomo said in an interview with NY1 Wednesday afternoon. "The answer can't be, 'Well, we don't really know if your child is in an apartment with lead poisoining.' I understand why the residents are outraged, and we have to do something."

De Blasio and city officials on Thursday repeated their call for the state to let the city use the "design-build" contracting method for heating upgrades, which they say could shorten the timeline by as much as another 15 months. State entities regularly use the method, which lets the same company handle design and construction work for a project.

"We are cutting through red tape to expedite these critically needed repairs for tenants, and urge our state partners to do the same by authorizing design-build immediately," de Blasio said in a statement.

Cuomo said he supports the idea alongside a state of emergency to further speed repairs to NYCHA buildings.

"We're going to do an emergency declaration. We're going to do design-build," he said Wednesday. "We're going to get this done in a very creative way, and God forbid we don't need the federal government to come in here and tell us how to run our housing."

Cuomo's pledge and de Blasio's promise of faster repairs reflect the latest escalation in a feud between the mayor and the governor. De Blasio has touted his administration's investment in NYCHA and criticized the state for underfunding the agency. Cuomo has argued the housing authority is the city's responsibility while saying he's given it more state money than it had seen in decades.

A NYCHA spokeswoman didn't comment on Cuomo's promise of an emergency declaration, but said the authority "appreciate(s)" his comments on the design-build process.

"This is an important tool that would make a real difference in how quickly we can deliver capital projects," NYCHA press secretary Jasmine Blake said. "We hope to see the state pass this legislation soon."

This week's developments followed months of calls for independent oversight of NYCHA as the heating failures and lead-testing scandal provided evidence to some that the housing authority's leaders couldn't manage its problems on their own.

Cuomo's remarks Wednesday came a day after a lawyer for NYCHA's Citywide Council of Presidents, a group comprising leaders of public housing tenant associations, sent a letter to state lawmakers asking for an emergency declaration. The group, which sued NYCHA last week, wants tenants to have direct input in an expedited construction process overseen by an independent private contractor.

"We are grateful to the Governor," Danny Barber, the council's chairman, said in a statement Wednesday night. "At least one elected official is responding with more than just words."

(Lead image: Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at a rally at Madison Square Garden in February 2018. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)