Not only did NYCHA sit on millions set aside for security cameras — the troubled agency also held on to nearly $50 million more in taxpayer dollars allotted to repair its aging developments.
The city Housing Authority is now behind schedule to spend the millions it has been given by the City Council over the past six years to fix decrepit apartments, upgrade playgrounds, install fire alarms and meet federal standards for the handicapped.
That includes $9.6 million that’s been sitting around since 2008 and even earlier, a new report sent this week to the City Council shows.
The Daily News revealed last year how NYCHA failed to spend $42 million allocated for cameras in high-crime projects. NYCHA then promised to provide City Council Speaker Christine Quinn with detailed reports on its spending.
In a report to be released Wednesday, NYCHA listed dozens of repair projects funded up to five years ago now listed as “zero percent complete.”
More than 60 of these unfinished jobs involve “nonsecurity” work such as patching up basketball courts, renovating community centers, installing elevators and even putting in fire alarms.
The Council set aside $49.6 million over the past six years to fund this work that is still not completed.
There’s millions more set aside for unfinished camera installation at 90 developments. Some of that was recently allocated by the Council, but at 18 of those developments, camera money dates back to 2008 and earlier.
The authority says 33 of these camera projects are “in construction,” 33 are awaiting approval from the city budget office or controller and eight are about to be closed out as complete.
The rest are in limbo.
“Too many New Yorkers are still waiting for nearly 100 promised security projects from years past,” said mayoral hopeful Quinn after reviewing the report. “Every day that NYCHA fails to make essential security upgrades is another day that New Yorkers’ lives are needlessly placed in jeopardy.”
NYCHA spokeswoman Sheila Stainback said some Council money “was inadequate when it was first allocated, but additional funds have since been assigned, and the projects are either underway or near completion.” In other cases, she said, “Projects have been completed, but there are funds remaining that cannot be spent until the Council member repurposes a use for the money.”
But at the Linden Houses in East New York, Brooklyn, City Councilman Charles Barron blames NYCHA.
Back in early 2008, he set aside $3 million for a two-story youth center with a new gym for a neighborhood where there’s little to offer young people.
Five years later, the youth center is listed as “zero percent complete.”
“I could choke them,” said Barron, who said at first NYCHA promised to match his money with $10 million. Then it raised the price to $18 million and asked him for more.
Then in late 2008, NYCHA pulled out, blaming the collapse of the real estate market: “They took all of their money out and left my money hanging here that can’t do anything.”
In the past few months, Barron says, NYCHA has suddenly revived the project, promising $1 million thrown in by a developer building affordable housing on a nearby NYCHA parking lot.
But now that’s only enough for a one-story center.
