NYCHA Under New Leadership After Arsenic Water Crisis

NEW YORK CITY — NYCHA’s top boss has stepped down in a leadership shakeup that followed an arsenic crisis at a Manhattan housing development, officials said.

Lisa Bova-Hiatt will serve as interim CEO after housing honcho Greg Russ left the role, Mayor Eric Adams announced Thursday.

“We cannot wait any longer to make transformational changes so NYCHA can provide safe, high-quality homes for New Yorkers,” Adams said in a statement.

The leadership change was billed by Adams as a fulfillment of a plan reached in June to split the CEO and board chair positions. Russ will stay on as NYCHA’s chair, officials said.

But left unsaid in Adams’ announcement was mention of a recent controversy over the botched response to the detection of arsenic in the water at Jacob Riis Houses in the East Village.

The tests showing arsenic were ultimately found to be incorrect, said Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the mayor.

“We have now tested more than 140 points — both at the source and at the point of delivery — and we can confidently say the water at Riis Houses is and has been free of any discernable amount of arsenic since the initial tests were initiated in August,” he said in a statement last week. “Needless to say, neither NYCHA nor any other city agency will test water through Environmental Monitoring and Technologies any longer, and the city intends to pursue all available legal options on behalf of the residents of Riis Houses.”

Adams, who publicly drank Riis Houses water to show it was safe, said Bova-Hiatt would help lead NYCHA until a permanent boss is found.