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]

Six whistle-blowing New York City Housing Authority elevator inspectors have come forward to say they’re being forced to fake reports and take safety shortcuts, according to the New York Daily News. Supervisors, the inspectors say, are obsessed with meeting daily quotas of six inspections per day and often order employees to move to the next job without shutting down dangerous elevators or waiting for a mechanic, as NYCHA rules dictate.

“I told them somebody’s wife could be riding on that elevator, somebody’s kid,” a veteran inspector said. “They didn’t want to hear it.” Another veteran said he was repeatedly told not to enter deficiencies into a hand-held computer that generates work orders.

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The New York City Housing Authority is targeting residents with more space than they need. Those people are mostly the elderly, according to the New York Daily News, who are living alone after raising their families in multi-room apartments. At least 45,000 of NYCHA’s 180,000 apartments are under-occupied, including 7,000 three- or four-bedroom residences with just one occupant, while more than 2,600 families big enough to qualify for the larger spaces squeeze into tiny apartments.

NYCHA is attempting to entice grannies from their oversized homes with subsidized private apartments in buildings with better facilities for the disabled, but is not resorting to throwing them out just yet. “We have to optimize [apartments] in the most humane way possible,” said NYCHA Chairman John Rhea. “We have to not only serve granny better because, let’s face it, granny’s not being served in a world-class way today … but we also have to serve those families who are overcrowded.” [more]

City-run housing projects in the East Village and Lower East Side are in a state of urgent disrepair with leaky ceilings, broken windows, peeling paint, holes in walls and extensive mold, according to the New York Daily News. Repairs, it seems, will not happen any time soon.

The New York City Housing Authority slated only 9,000 of 106,000 of last year’s backlogged work orders to be completed in 2012, with a further 300 in 2013. The agency says it is aware of the issues but attributed the delay to budget cuts. “People need to take a look at this issue,” said board member and former city council member Margarita Lopez. “It’s easy to take a shot at the authority but it’s time for the assembly to take responsibility for the money they took away from us.” [more]

Proud residents of First Houses on the Lower East Side, New York’s first ever public housing development in the city, are worried about the historic landmark they call home. The development, at 87 First Avenue between 5th and 6th streets, is in disrepair after a long period without maintenance, according to City Limits.

The residents are frustrated with the New York City Housing Authority, which oversees 180,000 housing units in the city, and whose capital and operating funds have failed to cover the problems of aging buildings. The plumbing system, which was installed in 1930, is now faulty and causing major leaks, the article says, and one resident’s ceiling is collapsing. [more]

Violent crimes in New Your City’s public housing developments rose sharply in 2010, particularly in Harlem and the Bronx, according to city data compiled by the Daily News. Citywide, there were 73 murders at public housing projects, up from 62 one year ago. Of those, 27 took place in the Bronx, including 14 at the violence-plagued Edenwald Houses. The Bronx’s public housing developments had seen only 13 murders in 2009. While murders declined in Manhattan, shootings were up dramatically. There were 54 people shot at Manhattan projects in 2010, including 40 in Harlem, up from 37 in 2009. [more]

The Obama Administration has allocated $73 million for housing counseling, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today, aimed at helping families find suitable and affordable homes while avoiding foreclosure. The funds will be given to more than 500 different home counseling programs across the country. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said that the organizations receiving the funds “assist families in making more informed choices before they purchase a home and counsel families facing foreclosure.” The $73 million funding marks a 22 percent increase over last year’s allocation of $60 million. TRD

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today the allocation of $35 million for new the development of early childhood and adult education facilities. The federal funding will allow public housing authorities nationwide to construct, purchase or rehabilitate facilities for educational use, such as job training and childhood development programs. Local housing authorities must apply for funds by Jan. 14, 2011, and the maximum grant available is $5 million. TRD

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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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The city’s supply of affordable housing is shrinking. Despite Mayor Bloomberg’s success in bringing 94,000 new public housing units — 72,000 of which are designated for low-income families — to the market, his efforts have been outweighed by the 200,000 affordable apartments lost to gentrification and rent deregulation during his term, the New York Times reported. In 2008, 42 percent of the city’s households were considered low-income, that is, making less than $37,000 per year. However, the supply of apartments they could afford at that time had shrunk to 991,592, or 17 percent less than the 2002 supply. Bloomberg has said he wants to invest an additional $965 million to expand his housing plan if re-elected, in order to stabilize apartment buildings where rents aren’t covering owners’ debt, and to preserve 10,000 more Mitchell-Lama housing units. [more]