Stringer: Spend to Fix NY City Housing Woes

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration must secure enough funding for public housing repairs and vigorously enforcing the housing code, City Comptroller Scot Stringer said in a report.

Stringer's Sept. 8 report, "How New York Lives," notes that despite years of government and private-sector investment, significant enclaves of poor quality housing persist in New York City Housing Authority units. Nearly 30% of the city's housing units have multiple maintenance deficiencies, said Stringer, whose report examined structural defects and patterns of deficient maintenance.

The comptroller urged policymakers and the public to pressure all levels of government, especially the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the federal agency responsible for NYCHA.

"Housing conditions at NYCHA have become a laundry list of tenant frustration, from broken windows and peeling paint, to faulty heaters and scurrying rats," said Stringer, who as Manhattan borough president from 2006 to 2013 lambasted NNYCHA for a plethora of broken elevators in projects.

De Blasio and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer on Sept. 5 announced $108 million in federal funds to repair and protect the Coney Island Houses public development that Hurricane Sandy damaged.

The funding marks a tentative agreement between NYCHA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to apply this model to fund repairs and mitigation measures to at least 15 other public housing developments affected by the 2012 storm.