Mayor de Blasio will unveil a budget Tuesday that includes a promise to spend $1 billion over the next 10 years to fix leaky roofs in public housing across the city.
The preliminary budget also includes more money spent on new school classrooms and millions more to repave miles of beat-up city streets.
De Blasio will reveal his $84 billion budget plan along with a 10-year strategy for longer-term city building projects going forward, paid for by floating bonds.
A key component with be a new 10-year commitment to spend $100 million a year to upgrade roofs in 700-plus NYCHA buildings.
Since 2014, the city has spent that amount on NYCHA repairs yearly, but Tuesday’s announcement commits them to keep that spending going for years to come.
Combined with a prior $300 million commitment announced by de Blasio last year, NYCHA plans to fix roofs in buildings housing more than 175,000 tenants. Leaky roofs are a top priority for repair because they cause other problems, such as the build-up of mold inside apartments.
“This historic commitment is about more than just bricks and mortar,” NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye said. “It’s about investing in New York City’s working families and our city’s most vulnerable.”
Public Housing Committee Chairman Ritchie Torres, D-Bronx, however, said the city should have dedicated even more money, noting that NYCHA’s housing stock needs at least $17 billion in upgrades to fix everything that needs fixing.
“A 10-year $1 billion commitment to public housing might sound substantial but it represents crumbs,” he said. “The city should be stepping up. If the city can invest $2 billion in an elaborate street car, surely it can invest more in public housing.”
And a group that’s sued NYCHA to force repairs, Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, questioned whether repairs will come fast enough to alleviate the toxic mold that afflicts so many public housing tenants.
“Ten years is an eternity for the children and adults who suffer with respiratory conditions now,” Metro IAF member Fr. Francis Skelly, pastor of the Immaculate Conception Church in the South Bronx, said. “The health threats are urgent.”
De Blasio’s budget also contains $495 million for 38,487 new seats in public schools around the city starting in fiscal 2020. The Mayor referenced the seats at a speech to the New York Building Congress on Monday in Manhattan.
“That is another indicator of the extraordinary growth of this town, that the demand on our school system keeps growing, and we’re going to match that,” the mayor said.
The budget also sets aside $14 million for 4,400 new seats in voluntary summer classes for second graders and longer school days for roughly 30,000 kids enrolled in voluntary and mandated summer classes starting in July.
Sources familiar with the matter said Blasio’s budget will not fund universal free lunch for public school students, something advocates had pushed for.
And de Blasio spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein wouldn’t say whether the mayor included funding for a “Fair Fares” proposal to subsidize subway fares for lower income New Yorkers.
The budget also includes $20 million to restore the Orchard Beach bathhouse, which is also getting funds from the state and the Bronx Borough president.
In addition to repairing the huge building, there will be direct beach access from the parking areas and new access for people with disabilities. There will also be new seating areas and space for potential concessions.
De Blasio will also target $147 million more to repave 1,300 lane miles of city streets starting in fiscal 2019.
“Every time I travel down another road or highway that’s not great, it drives me a little crazy,” he told the Building Congress. “We have been true believers in repaving roads.”
With Dan Rivoli
