City Needs More Time To Pick New NYCHA Chief, De Blasio Says

NEW YORK — The New York City Housing Authority will have to go a little longer without a permanent leader. The city and the federal government have agreed to extend the process of selecting a new chair and CEO for the troubled public housing agency beyond the deadline in NYCHA's landmark oversight deal, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

"This is a really important decision that will have huge ramifications for 400,000 people who live in public housing," de Blasio said on NY1. "We all want to get it right so we’re all going to work on this a little bit longer."

The Jan. 31 agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development required the city to pick a new leader for NYCHA from a list of candidates approved by HUD and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office.

The city was supposed to have picked a winner by this week under the schedule laid out in the deal. But it got another 45 days from the federal government, according to the New York Post.

The process will take several more weeks, de Blasio said, as the city and the feds want to consider some other candidates even though they have already examined dozens.

"When we look at people we got to vet them, we got to look at whether we think they fit," the Democratic mayor said. "... This is a tough job. To make a fine parallel it’s like being a mayor of a city of 400,000 people."

Whoever gets the job will be NYCHA's fourth leader in fewer than two years. Kathryn Garcia, formerly the sanitation commissioner, is currently the housing authority's interim chairwoman. She replaced Stanley Brezenoff, who took over after the last permanent chief, Shola Olatoye, stepped down in April 2018.

De Blasio said the new leader will be tasked with implementing the reforms laid out in the January agreement, which is meant to address NYCHA's problems with lead paint, mold, pests, elevator breakdowns and heating failures.

The person will likely also have to work with Bart Schwartz, whom HUD picked as the federal monitor to make sure NYCHA holds up its end of the deal.

The agreement allows for the selection deadlines to be pushed back if "extraordinary circumstances" make an extension necessary. But Lynne Patton, HUD's regional administrator for New York and New Jersey, questioned de Blasio's personal investment in the process.

"While I agree this is a critical selection that should not be made either hastily or lightly, the New York City Mayor needs to personally commit more time to this collective process in lieu of just his handlers," Patton said on her Facebook page Tuesday morning.