NYCHA is “sitting on” more than 2,000 vacant apartments even as hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in need of housing languish for years on waiting lists, City Controller Scott Stringer said in a new audit released Wednesday.
The audit found NYCHA had 2,342 empty apartments as of late last year — and 312 of those, which were removed from the rolls for major repairs, had been vacant an average of seven years.
“It’s shameful, totally unacceptable that they’re been empty for so long,” Stringer said. “People are desperate for homes. You cannot keep vacant apartments off the market for years and years with no explanation.”
He said 80 apartments were vacant for over a decade, another 79 were empty at least seven years — and one apartment in the Harlem River Houses had been left vacant since 1994.
The cash-strapped agency lost out on almost $8 million in rent from apartments vacant for at least three years, according to the audit. “The bill for this incompetence is huge,” he said.
NYCHA had a waiting list of 273,391 people as of December, the reports says.
The agency says it had 2,196 vacant apartments last month, a 39% decrease from the beginning of 2013.
“NYCHA has a record low vacancy rate of only 1% — the lowest it’s been in nearly 10 years. With thousands of families on the waiting list for public housing and residents with critical pending transfer needs, managing and turning over our vacant apartments effectively and efficiently is vital to our operations,” NYCHA, which manages 178,000 apartments, said in a statement.
But Stringer said despite the low vacancy rate, the authority “neglects, overlooks, and forgets” its thousands of empty units.
Even when apartments still on the rent rolls are briefly vacant between tenants, a process that is supposed to take 40 days, 77% of units auditors examined were empty for 116 days on average.
When apartments were cleared for elevator repairs, they stayed empty for 689 days — including 288 days after the elevators were fixed.
Investigators found evidence of squatters in a few empty apartments, including liquor bottles on the floor and graffiti on the walls.
Others were being used by city workers or had been combined with other apartments despite NYCHA records listing them as vacant.
Stringer's slam also provoked a response from his sometime rival Mayor de Blasio's office. "The Comptroller’s audit ignores the facts and the significant progress made to fill vacant units under the de Blasio administration," said spokesman Peter Kadushin, saying the average time to turn around an apartment has also fallen 25% to 54 days.
Source : http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nycha-sitting-2-300-empty-apartments-audit-article-1.2270080
The audit found NYCHA had 2,342 empty apartments as of late last year — and 312 of those, which were removed from the rolls for major repairs, had been vacant an average of seven years.
“It’s shameful, totally unacceptable that they’re been empty for so long,” Stringer said. “People are desperate for homes. You cannot keep vacant apartments off the market for years and years with no explanation.”
He said 80 apartments were vacant for over a decade, another 79 were empty at least seven years — and one apartment in the Harlem River Houses had been left vacant since 1994.
The cash-strapped agency lost out on almost $8 million in rent from apartments vacant for at least three years, according to the audit. “The bill for this incompetence is huge,” he said.
NYCHA had a waiting list of 273,391 people as of December, the reports says.
The agency says it had 2,196 vacant apartments last month, a 39% decrease from the beginning of 2013.
“NYCHA has a record low vacancy rate of only 1% — the lowest it’s been in nearly 10 years. With thousands of families on the waiting list for public housing and residents with critical pending transfer needs, managing and turning over our vacant apartments effectively and efficiently is vital to our operations,” NYCHA, which manages 178,000 apartments, said in a statement.
But Stringer said despite the low vacancy rate, the authority “neglects, overlooks, and forgets” its thousands of empty units.
Even when apartments still on the rent rolls are briefly vacant between tenants, a process that is supposed to take 40 days, 77% of units auditors examined were empty for 116 days on average.
When apartments were cleared for elevator repairs, they stayed empty for 689 days — including 288 days after the elevators were fixed.
Investigators found evidence of squatters in a few empty apartments, including liquor bottles on the floor and graffiti on the walls.
Others were being used by city workers or had been combined with other apartments despite NYCHA records listing them as vacant.
Stringer's slam also provoked a response from his sometime rival Mayor de Blasio's office. "The Comptroller’s audit ignores the facts and the significant progress made to fill vacant units under the de Blasio administration," said spokesman Peter Kadushin, saying the average time to turn around an apartment has also fallen 25% to 54 days.
Source : http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nycha-sitting-2-300-empty-apartments-audit-article-1.2270080
, it becomes a way of life