The planned, $14 million community center at a crime-ridden East New
York housing project has been tabled indefinitely, officials from the
New York City Housing Authority told the Daily News. The two-story
center was initially promised six years ago to the more than 4,000
residents of the Linden Houses on Stanley Avenue. Currently, the site
is a rundown basketball court. City Council member Charles Baron raised
nearly $4 million for the project between 2004 and 2006 and the NYCHA
committed another $10 million in 2007. That city money has since been
reallocated for structural repairs at other developments where the need
was more critical, according to a spokesperson for the agency. [NYDN]

[more]

Sonia Sotomayor

A 33-building affordable housing complex in the Bronx is set to be renamed after one of its famous former residents, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, according to the New York Post. But residents at the Bronxdale Houses in Soundview say that the New York City Housing Authority’s decision to rename the development is a slap in the face after decades of neglect and disrepair. Conditions there have grown so bad that the complex nearly failed a recent federal Department of Housing and Urban Development inspection, which found numerous violations including outdated appliances, damaged walls and missing smoke detectors. Residents now say that more maintenance workers have been sent to make cosmetic upgrades to the complex’s exterior, including mowing the grass and painting fences, something they say is meant to cover up neglect during an upcoming naming ceremony at the buildings. [Post]

[more]

Two Brooklyn men have been charged with attempting to bribe someone they believed to be a government official in order to receive a lease on a New York City Housing Authority property, according to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office. Ali Hassan Zindani and his son, Bashir Zindani, allegedly offered to pay an undercover Department of Investigation official $10,000 in order to receive the lease on the NYCHA commercial space Feb. 1, 2010, believing hthe investigator to be a NYCHA official. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said that the Zindanis could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, if convicted. “When the Zindanis allegedly tried to cut the line to rent a [NYCHA] commercial property, they crossed the line into criminal activity,” Bharara said. “Bribing government employees is illegal for good reason, as a fair process requires wheels that turn without grease.” TRD

Armed with $350 million in new financing, the New York City Housing Authority will start renovation work on 20,000 apartments in 21 developments within weeks, the agency is expected to announce today. NYCHA is getting $100 million in federal stimulus funds, $210 million from bond sales and $40 million from the state in what Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan is calling the “most signification preservation action in the history of public housing.” The new funds — plus an additional $65 million per year — will be announced at the Rutgers Houses on the Lower East Side today and in an unprecedented action, will go towards developments built by the city and state. “It’s not a one-time appropriation — it’s a continuing commitment,” said Senator Chuck Schumer. “It’s one of the most important things Washington can do for New York City.” [NYDN]

The Bloomberg administration is planning to use the sluggish residential development market to its advantage by offering incentives to developers who build affordable housing, the mayor said in his weekly radio address on 1010 WINS. “In today’s economy, incentives that our City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development can offer in exchange for affordability commitments… look a lot more attractive,” he explained. His administration is aiming to build or preserve half a million affordable housing units by 2014, and he said it is on track to do that. On the distressed housing front, the city is converting stalled condo projects into even more affordable housing, and has slotted $750 million for low-cost refinancing and repair loans that will encourage multi-family building owners in danger of default to prevent apartments from deteriorating. To pay for all of this by the 2014 goal, the city’s Housing Development Corporation will provide $1 billion in funds, none of which will come from taxpayers, Bloomberg said. In addition, the New York City Housing Authority is on its way to securing $100 million per year in Federal funds to upgrade and maintain 18,000 public housing units, thanks to the recently-passed bill in the State Legislature, supporting the bid, he added. TRD

The New York City Housing Authority is hoping Albany lawmakers can overcome their partisan gridlock in time to approve a $75 million federal bailout before it’s too late. The agency, which wants to make 13,000 apartments eligible for federal funding for the first time, must submit an application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by March 17, after which, the bailout plan would collapse. Albany Democrats have a 31-30 majority in the Senate and need at least one Republican to back the deal in order for it to pass. But doubts abound about whether any bipartisanship is possible. U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, who is responsible for the $75 million NYCHA bailout in Obama’s budget, has said that the bill must be passed in the State Senate by early March if the agency is to have enough time for its application. [NYDN]

Seven years after relocating 1,200 low-income tenants at Brooklyn’s Prospect Plaza at 1776 Prospect Place near Crown Heights in order to renovate the decaying housing complex, the city has announced plans to demolish the four buildings in the fall, pending approval by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The New York City Housing Authority, which had promised to rehabilitate the apartments and bring tenants back afterward, applied for a demolition permit in November, saying at the time that it did not plan to use it. Now, the city is saying the cost of renovations is too much to bear: the 368 units there have been neglected and weather-beaten, and would cost roughly $381,700 each to upgrade, according to Ilene Popkin, assistant deputy general manager for development at NYCHA. Former tenants, meanwhile, are crying foul. Milton Bolton, president of the Prospect Plaza Tenants Association, said he suspects the city would rather utilize the valuable piece of land for more profitable real estate development. “Land is the most important thing in New York. This is big enough for another Atlantic Yards right here [at the housing complex site],” Bolton said.

A woman who allegedly posed as a residential sales agent or broker
although she was unlicensed was arrested today for the second time in
two months and charged with stealing more than $20,000 from families
seeking rental apartments, the office of the Bronx District Attorney
said.

Cecilia Casabuena, 53, of Manhattan, is accused of posing as a
licensed real estate agent or broker and scamming 10 victims out of
more than $20,000 in security deposits and fees, prosecutors said.

The complaint said Casabuena misrepresented herself to several Bronx
real estate companies, and attracted clients through referrals and the
Spanish language El Diario newspaper.

Some of those who claim they were scammed were recipients of aid
through the New York City Housing Authority’s Section 8 rental voucher
program, the Bronx DA’s office said. Between February 2008 and October 2009, Casabuena allegedly charged 10
victims an average of $2,000 in security deposits and fees each and
promised that she would obtain apartments for them, but never did. TRD [more]

Of the roughly 3,500 apartments at the adjacent Ingersoll and Whitman houses, public housing complexes in Fort Greene, 923 are currently sitting vacant, waiting for renovations from the city’s Housing Authority for an average of four years. The long waits have given the buildings an aura of abandonment, and squatters, drug dealers and vandals have been quick to capitalize on the empty space. Beyond the rampant crime, residents are wary that the renovation story is all a ruse to oust low-income tenants and make room for luxury housing as Brooklyn gentrifies, allegations that the city has repeatedly denied. The renovation project, which the agency has called the largest for public housing in the country, was announced in 2002. It was originally slated for completion this year at a cost of $83 million, and many tenants were relocated long before construction began. This past April, agency officials said the new expected completion date is February 2012. The cost will be $248 million, helped along by $108 million in federal stimulus funding.

A new Bronx Public Housing Advisory Council will soon lobby on behalf of more than 100,000 Bronx residents who live in New York City Housing Authority buildings, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz announced yesterday. The council, which will be made up of 50 tenant association leaders, will work with NYCHA, the mayor’s office and the City Council with a goal of improving residents’ quality of life, especially with regard to safety and crime issues, officials said. “This council wasn’t create to point fingers,” Diaz said. Bronx residents comprise roughly one quarter of NYCHA tenants citywide. [NYDN]