Mayor Bill de Blasio announces comprehensive plan to renovate NYCHA apartments and preserve public housing in New York City. Image credit: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
The plan will be divided into three programs to address the $24 billion in capital need for repairs and renovations. On December 12, 2018, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a comprehensive plan named NYCHA 2.0 to renovate and preserve NYCHA housing, aimed to resolving $24 billion in vital repairs. NYCHA 2.0 is a ten-year plan that will deliver renovations for 175,000 residents, fund essential capital repairs across the rest of NYCHA’s portfolio, and launch new repair strategies for lead paint, mold, elevator, heat, and vermin issues.
NYCHA will launch three new programs: Build to Preserve, Transfer to Preserve, and Fix to Preserve, which will expand the Section 8 Conversion of 62,000 units. Build to Preserve will deliver approximately $2 million in capital repairs across 10,000 NYCHA apartment, Transfer to Preserve will deliver $1 billion in capital repairs through sale of air rights, and Fix to Preserve will improve services, infrastructure maintenance, and address health and safety issues. Build to Preserve, Transfer to Preserve and the Section 8 Conversion plan will address an estimated $16 billion in capital need and there is an expected $8 billion in federal, state, and city capital funding to address the $24 billion in capital need.
“These are the kind of top-to-bottom renovations NYCHA residents have waited decades to see. They will make an enormous difference in the lives of the 400,000 New Yorkers who call NYCHA home and make up the backbone of our neighborhoods,” said Mayor de Blasio. “With new leadership, new resources and new programs, we are going to deliver the change NYCHA residents deserve.”
“NYCHA’s long-deferred capital and maintenance needs are among the greatest challenges we face as a city. NYCHA 2.0 addresses these challenges forcefully and at scale, leveraging public and private resources to make critical improvements both in individual units and in structures, as well as committing the agency to improve service to residents,” said Alicia Glen, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development.
“NYCHA residents need fixes in their homes, and they need them as soon as possible,” said NYCHA Interim Chair and CEO Stanley Brezenoff. “With the release of NYCHA 2.0, we now have a comprehensive plan to deliver nearly $24 billion in major repair needs over the next decade. I thank Mayor de Blasio and his Administration for their staunch support of public housing and look forward to our continued work to make NYCHA a better and more responsive landlord.”
“NYCHA is facing an existential crisis and the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who live in public housing need innovative solutions to big problems. I am happy to see we are getting creative and exploring all possibilities to make things better for residents. They deserve better conditions and they deserve them now,” said City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.
To learn more about NYCHA 2.0, click here and here.