New York City Housing Authority

The New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, is a municipal government agency that runs the non-federal, non-state public housing of New York City. It is the administrator of what are known as projects. Since 2014, Shola Olatoye has served as the housing authoritys chairwoman and chief executive. Olatoye replaced John Rhea. NYCHA, which operates over 170,000 apartments in 334 housing development complexes, was established in 1934. It acts as a landlord, renting out housing at below-market rates to poor New Yorkers and administers the Section 8 program through the city. That program compensates private landlords for renting out housing at below-market rates. NYCHA oversees housing for more than 7 percent of the population of New York City. As the cash-strapped agency has failed to keep up repairs on its properties in the face of wear-and-tear, NYCHA housing is typically in poor condition. To close a budget shortfall, NYCHA has proposed building market rate housing on the agencys land. -TA