Lawsuits against city’s Housing Authority spike

March 13, 2012 04:00PM

Glenwood Houses sign

There’s been a year-over-year increase in the number of public housing tenants suing the New York City Housing Authority for delayed repairs, New York World reported. Last year, tenants filed a total of 1,248 cases, up 40 percent from 2010.

According to the suit, cited by New York World, many of the repairs needed were deemed to be “immediately hazardous,” requiring help to come within a 24-hour period. Repairs in that category include fire damage, broken windows and a lack of electricity. Other “hazardous” repairs have to be taken care of within the period of a month. In those cases, tenants had to wait months, even sometimes over a year, to have the issues taken care of, the paper said.

Shavonna Bradley, who lives in the Glenwood Houses in East Flatbush, told the digital news site that a re-painting job took six months to address.

“It was unfair to be paying rent for somewhere that isn’t in good condition,” she told the news site.

NYCHA spokesperson Sheila Stainback declined to speak with New York World, published by Columbia Journalism School, about the lawsuits, but said that new NYCHA efforts to bring better repair services are now kicking in.

“NYCHA has allocated $11 million to reduce the number of appointments in the backlog by the end of 2012,” she told the New York World.

According to New York World, some tenants refused to pay rent until they find a solution. [NY World]