Congress members urge inclusion of NYCHA funding in state budget

Beat Memo

A crisis of rent arrears at the struggling New York City Housing Authority has already paused roughly 70 capital projects as officials make an urgent case for funding in the state budget being negotiated in Albany.

Without an agreement between the governor and state Legislature on as much as $389 million for NYCHA and other subsidized housing, the agency has warned it will have to make significant cuts to expenses and curtail repairs. And there doesn’t appear to be much of a plan B if that aid doesn’t come through, at least not yet.

Now, members of New York’s congressional delegation are joining calls to Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders to ensure the budget includes rental aid for public housing, where residents were notably given the lowest priority in New York’s original emergency rental assistance program. The one-house proposals from both the Senate and Assembly included the funding, but whether it will be part of the final agreement is uncertain as talks continue.

“[Public housing authorities] across the state continue to struggle with increased expenses and significant losses of rental income — suffered both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic — and are being faced with the challenge of potentially cutting services, laying off workers and discontinuing other needed services if an infusion of rental assistance for [public housing] and Section 8 tenants is not provided,” Reps. Nydia Velázquez, Yvette Clarke, Adriano Espaillat, Dan Goldman, Grace Meng, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ritchie Torre wrote in a letter to state leaders.

Rent arrears at NYCHA properties totaled $466 million as of last month, and the housing authority is collecting only 64 percent of the rent it is owed over a 12-month period, officials told City Council members at a March hearing. And this all comes as the agency continues to struggle with a massive capital backlog exceeding $40 billion.

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Driving the Day

HOUSING AT CENTER OF BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS — POLITICO’s Janaki Chadha: A mandate to build housing or an incentive to encourage housing. That’s at the crux of limited negotiations so far over Gov. Kathy Hochul’s ambitious housing agenda that hinges on requiring localities in New York to produce more homes, with the threat of zoning overrides if they resist. And her proposal could be part of a larger housing package that addresses tenant rights and housing vouchers that have long been sought by the Democratic-led Legislature, according to lawmakers and aides.

The issue has become a key divide in budget talks that has pushed a deal past the March 31 deadline, and legislators said they still have a long way to go to hashing out the framework of a housing agreement. Hochul has put changes to the state’s bail system as the top priority, and a major reason why the state budget is late.

THE CITY’S DYSFUNCTIONAL VOUCHER PROGRAM — New York Times’ Mihir Zaveri: “…Few tools are as important as vouchers when it comes to addressing New York City’s swelling homelessness problem. The city spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year to keep people housed through CityFHEPS, and more than 26,000 households have used the program to find apartments since 2018. But problems abound. Getting a voucher in the first place can require a complicated amount of paperwork. People with vouchers struggle to find apartments as the city deals with a dire housing shortage. And discrimination by landlords and brokers against people with vouchers, while illegal, is widespread.”

MTA WAITS ON ALBANY — POLITICO’s Danielle Muoio Dunn, Joseph Spector: It’s still unclear how much New York City will have to chip in for the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority — but metropolitan lawmakers are proposing alternative funding streams to avoid picking up the entire $500 million hike proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Legislators from the five boroughs said this week they are looking at a variety of ways to limit the cost to the city as they contemplate other revenue sources, such as taxing streaming services or ride-hail trips.

“The key for me is that everyone has to take on a little bit of responsibility,” Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn) said. “Suburbs have to pay their share because they benefit from transit. The city is going to have to pay some costs because they benefit from transit.”

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Odds and Ends

BROOKLYN NAVY YARD BECOMES LAB FOR GREEN TECH — New York Times’ Winnie Hu: “...The site was made possible through Yard Labs, a new initiative that invites green technology companies to test out their ideas and products within the controlled confines of a city-within-a-city. Behind the gates of the 300-acre waterfront complex, there are 60 industrial buildings, a private road network, a Wegmans supermarket and a power plant. ‘They need a baseline, they need a place to do trial-and-error,’ said Lindsay Greene, the president and chief executive of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, a nonprofit that manages the city-owned site.”

FLATIRON BUILDING TO GO BACK FOR AUCTION — New York Post’s Hannah Frishberg: “The saga of New York’s most iconic triangular skyscraper continues. After being bought by a surprise contender, the Flatiron Building’s fate is once again up in the air, and more bidding may well lie in its near future. Late last month, the Fifth Avenue landmark’s former owners lost their deed to deep-pocketed challenger Jacob Garlick, who placed a winning $189.5 million on the former Fuller Building. Then, after sending the New York City real estate world into a tizzy, Garlick — a managing partner at growth equity venture fund Abraham Trust — flaked out hard on paying a $19 million deposit, putting his possession of the iconic Manhattan building into question.”

Quick Links

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