Renovations Coming To 2,400 NYC Public Housing Apartments

NEW YORK, NY — Hundreds of public housing apartments in Manhattan and Brooklyn will be renovated through partnerships between the city and private companies, city officials announced Monday. The 2,400 apartments across 21 New York City Housing Authority developments will get $400 million worth of upgrades starting next year as they're handed to private property managers, officials said.

"This public-private partnership is an idea whose time has come, a way to bring new resources in that really make a difference," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

The repairs at the 14 complexes in Manhattan and seven in Brooklyn will include new kitchens and bathrooms, improvements to common areas, and replacements of elevators, boilers, windows and roofs, the mayor's office said.

NYCHA plans to move the developments into the federal Section 8 program through a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development initiative called Rental Assistance Demonstration. That means private companies will renovate and maintain the complexes rather than NYCHA itself, though tenants' rent will not change.

NYCHA will send a letter of interest to HUD, the source of most of its budget, to start the process of changing how the targeted developments are subsidized, said Takisia Whites, NYCHA's executive vice president for real estate.

Then the housing authority will select developers to handle the projects before the first renovations start in 2019, officials said.

The city plans to renovate 20,000 NYCHA apartments by 2025 by moving them into Section 8 through various programs. That includes 5,000 apartments for which there have not been dedicated federal funds.

BFC Associates, a private developer, recently completed one renovation project at Campos Plaza I, an 875-apartment complex on the Lower East Side. De Blasio said he was "blown away" by the fixed-up courtyard on his first visit there Monday.

Dereese Huff, the president of the complex's tenant association, was able to stay in her apartment while it was renovated with new kitchen appliances, an upgraded electrical system and a modern heating and air conditioning system.

Huff, who has lived at Campos since 1979, said the project brought much-needed change to a complex that had long suffered from a lack of federal money. Residents were skeptical at first about the involvement of a private company, she said, but they got functioning windows and intercoms without giving up their rights as tenants.

"It's like we live in a hotel," Huff said. "Everything is revamped and it is remarkable."

Another project renovated 1,400 apartments at the Ocean Bay complex in the Rockaways, and upgrades to another 3,100 units in the Bronx and Brooklyn are underway, said Stanley Brezenoff, NYCHA's interim chairman.

The new renovations were announced two weeks after the city agreed to commit $1 billion in new capital funding to NYCHA over the next four years in a settlement with federal prosecutors.

In the agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan, NYCHA agreed to be monitored and admitted to falsely telling HUD that it had performed mandated inspections for lead when they had not actually been done.

Here's a list of the NYCHA complexes that will be renovated starting next year:

Manhattan:

• 335 East 111th St.
• Manhattanville Rehab (Group 2)
• Manhattanville Rehab (Group 3)
• Park Avenue-East 122nd, 123rd Streets
• Public School 139 (Conversion)
• Samuel (MHOP) I
• Samuel (MHOP) II
• Samuel (MHOP) III
• Washington Heights Rehab (Groups 1&2)
• Washington Heights Rehab Phase III
• Washington Heights Rehab Phase IV (C)
• Washington Heights Rehab Phase IV (D)
• Fort Washington Avenue Rehab
• Grampion

Brooklyn:

• Armstrong I
• Armstrong II
• 572 Warren Street
• Berry Street-South 9th Street
• Marcy Avenue-Greene Avenue Site A
• Marcy Avenue-Greene Avenue Site B
• Weeksville Gardens

(Lead image: Mayor Bill de Blasio tours Dereese Huff's renovated apartment at Campos Plaza I on the Lower East Side. Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)