New York City’s congressional delegation on Friday demanded that the incoming City Controller launch a top-to-bottom audit of the troubled New York City Housing Authority.
“We’re calling for a forensic audit of this agency so we can get things right,” Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn) said at a meeting convened by Teamsters Local 237, the union representing 8,000 NYCHA workers.
Clark was joined by Congresswomen Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan) and Grace Meng (D-Queens) and Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan).
The housing authority has come under attack in the last year following a series of reports in the Daily News that revealed administrators were sitting on millions of government dollars while repair requests were backing up and the agency’s aging buildings were continuing to deteriorate.
Because much of NYCHA’s funding comes from the federal government, the City Controller does not traditionally examine NYCHA’s inner workings.
A top-down audit of the agency by the controller would be unprecedented, and the lawmakers and union officials who are calling for it say that a closer look will turn up methods to remedy the agency’s chronic mismanagement.
Controller Elect Scott Stringer endorsed the concept. “Few agencies are more important to the working people of New York – and more in need of a top-to-bottom review – than the New York City Housing Authority,” he said in a statement.
“Whether it’s the agency’s chronic maintenance problems, its endless wait lists, or its inability to move swiftly on basic safety improvements, NYCHA’s problems are well known, and as Comptroller I look forward to examining the agency’s operations with an eye toward improving the lives of the 400,000 tenants.”
Facing a $60 million budget gap, the agency recently moved to lease public land in eight of its Manhattan developments to developers to build mostly luxury housing.
Tenants in seven of the targeted developments have teamed up with local elected officials to file suit to stop the luxury housing plan.
On Friday Maloney blasted NYCHA for shifting much of its work to private vendors instead of relying on its 12,000 employees, who say they can get repairs done faster and more efficiently.
“Many of the people on the front lines tell me they can’t get the tools they need to get the job done, then they’re told because they don’t have the tools, they’ll have to contract out the work,” Maloney said.
gsmith@nydailynews.com
