Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has encouraged the New York City Housing Authority to discontinue Section 8 rent subsidies termination notices until problems with the agency’s new computer system are fixed. De Blasio will release a report today showing the agency’s failings during the last year, he told the Post.

“Tenants are getting eviction notices slipped under their doors because NYCHA has withheld months’ worth of rent that it should have paid,” the public advocate told the Post. “Months of unpaid rent is not a simple glitch — it’s a full-blown crisis. NYCHA needs to ensure that actual human beings are checking these cases to ensure the agency isn’t wrongfully throwing landlords into default, and tenants out on the street.” [more]

Residents of a housing project in Red Hook say that their buildings still suffer unrepaired damage from the earthquake this August, the New York Daily News reported.

Damage includes cracked walls and slanted floors, according to the residents of Red Hook West Houses. When the earthquake struck on Aug. 23, bricks from a rooftop wall fell down and the floor in Thekla Giles’ apartment shifted. Giles has lived in Brooklyn’s largest housing project since 1974. “I break into a sweat when I get here,” she said, pointing out a crooked bathroom sink and uneven kitchen countertops. “I get nervous. Everything is just off.” [more]

From left: Speaker Christine Quinn, 3450 Gates Place, 225 West 232 Street and
2413 Clarendon Road

[Updated at 5:30 p.m.] Thirty-three Section 8 recipients sued the New York City Housing Authority Monday, blaming the agency’s new computer and phone systems for the loss of their housing vouchers, which has allegedly caused them to pay additional rent and endure lengthy housing court proceedings. The two federal lawsuits, filed in Manhattan and Brooklyn, claim NYCHA failed to send or process the annual paperwork needed to renew subsidies, notify participants of hearings to challenge program terminations, or adjust tenant contributions after changes in family income. [more]

The New York City Housing Authority is considering renting out space on its buildings for advertising as it contends with financial problems, the New York Daily News reported.

The Authority is looking for a consultant who could advise it on selling advertising space in the 334 developments it owns that are home to 400,000 New Yorkers.

Sheila Stainback, a spokesperson for the Housing Authority, called the idea an “exploratory effort.” She did not offer specifics on the potential placement or number of ads, but said they would be aesthetically pleasing. [more]

The New York City Housing Authority and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development are planning to overhaul a dilapidated Harlem block, DNAinfo reported, renovating 36 historic buildings at the Randolph Houses on 114th Street between Frederick Douglass Boulevard and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, in the city’s first mixed-use public and affordable housing complex.

The city agencies have issued a request for proposals to create 140 units of public housing and a minimum of 155 units of affordable housing at the tenements.

This will be the first collaboration between the NYCHA and HPD that will result in public housing and affordable housing units being placed together, they said. [more]

Residents in the Castle Hill Houses complex in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx are among many New Yorkers still suffering from the large rainfall of the
last few days, the New York Daily News reported. The Faulkner family, for example,
has been battling with large pools of water in their kitchen, even
though recent repairs done at the property are supposed to have
improved the situation. In another apartment, water was running down the wall in the kitchen
of the tenants association president, exacerbating her asthma
condition. Residents said maintenance crews had been repairing the
roof of the housing complex as recently as June. But in another
apartment, plaster fell from the ceiling in to a 15-year-old’s
bedroom. The New York City Housing Authority developments would not
comment on the Castle Hill situation. [NYDN]

From left, Joel Kupferman, head attorney of the New York Environment Law and Justice Project, Geoffrey Canada, CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone and a rendering of the charter school planned for the St. Nicholas Houses

Two non-profit organizations filed a lawsuit today on behalf of residents of the
St. Nicholas Houses in Central Harlem to prevent the construction of the Harlem
Children’s Zone in the public housing complex, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

More than 100 residents joined the Urban Justice Center and the New York
Environmental Law and Justice Project in filing the suit against the New York City
Housing Authority, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and
the Harlem Children’s Zone. [more]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed a 50-year resident of city public housing to fill the newly created Resident Board Member position on the New York City Housing Authority Board. The appointee, Victor Gonzalez, has served as the president of the Residents Association at the Rabbi Stephen Wise Towers near Columbus Avenue and West 90th Street on the Upper West Side since 2003. He spent 33 years working for United Parcel Service before retiring in 2005, served five years in the U.S. Air Force and has a Bachelor’s degree from Mercy College. – Adam Fusfeld [more]

The technology glitches that arose from the New York City Housing Authority’s installation of a new $36 million computer system are delaying the receipt of paperwork critical to low-income New Yorkers’ housing search. The Daily News reported that the computer system, installed in Februray to help centralize a database of tenants applying for federal Section 8 housing, is preventing low-income New Yorkers from receiving their “move-in letters,” the last step in the approval process to earning federal funding for their rent. Housing Authority spokesperson Sheila Stainback said the computer system is now “fully operational” but that the city is “aware of the issues, which were expected in a huge implementation such as this.” Comments

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More New York City residents in low-income housing owe back rent, with one in 10 residents in public housing at least a month behind in their rental payments, according to the New York Times. Roughly 12 percent of all public housing residents were behind on rent as of Aug. 31, according to the New York City Housing Authority, marking an almost 50 percent rise from the number of delinquent renters a year ago. Queens appears to be most in trouble, the data shows. The borough has seen a 70 percent climb in the number of public housing renters who are behind in their payments. [NYT]

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