Good morning. It’s Tuesday. We’ll look at tenants in public housing who worry that they will be thrown out of their apartments.
Credit…Juan Arredondo for The New York Times
Several weeks ago, the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, emailed residents, warning that it planned to “restart nonpayment eviction proceedings” after the state’s eviction moratorium expired.
A significant number of NYCHA households owe back rent. In November 2021, 68,000 tenants — roughly 42 percent of the households in public housing in New York City — were behind on the rent. That was up from 35 percent in November 2019, before the pandemic, which cost many tenants their jobs.
The email, along with memories of the agency’s past practices, have left tenants scared. More than more than 40,000 eviction cases a year were filed against NYCHA tenants between 2016 and 2018, according to court data collected by the Housing Data Coalition and the Right to Counsel Coalition. New York extended the eviction moratorium, a lifeline for tenants when their incomes dried up, time and again before it ended on Jan. 15.
Now, with the city struggling to find its footing as Omicron-driven infections decline, housing authority officials acknowledge that filing a large number of lawsuits could overwhelm the courts. Officials at NYCHA said they would focus on about 2,600 households that owed substantial amounts of back rent before the pandemic — about $50 million in total, or about $19,000 each.
“We want to make sure that we are pursuing evictions as a matter of last resort,” Lisa Bova-Hiatt, NYCHA’s general counsel, said in an interview.
[‘I’m Scared’: Thousands in New York Public Housing Are Behind on Rent]
New York City’s public housing system is the largest in the nation, with 350,000 residents — more than the populations of Pittsburgh, St. Louis or Orlando. And NYCHA developments are home to many of the lowest-income New Yorkers. The median NYCHA household makes $16,956 a year, compared with the citywide average of $64,000. NYCHA’s median monthly rent, which is generally capped at 30 percent of a tenant’s income, is $389, or about 73 percent below the citywide median.
The unpaid rent is a burden for the agency. After decades of decreasing investment from the federal government, as well as years of mismanagement, NYCHA relies on rent for about a quarter of the money it spends on day-to-day operations. After collecting more than $1 billion in rent in 2019, the agency collected $964 million in 2020 and only $898 million in 2021.
Greg Russ, NYCHA’s chairman and chief executive, said he did not know how the agency would compensate but insisted it could find a way to “bridge” the gap.
NYCHA was hoping to claim billions of dollars from President Biden’s $2.2 trillion spending bill, but it stalled in Congress. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams have not announced any new spending plans for NYCHA.
That has left tenants facing an uncertain future.
“I’m scared that I’m going to get evicted,” said Eileen Dominick, an administrative assistant at a foster care agency who lives in NYCHA’s Red Hook Houses development, in Brooklyn. She says she owes more than $3,000 on her $900-a-month apartment. “I wouldn’t be able to afford an apartment with the market today.”
Compounding her anxiety is the roadblock NYCHA residents have encountered when they try to enroll in the state’s $2.1 billion rent relief program, which put people in subsidized housing toward the end of the line for aid.
Dominick was one of 28,000 NYCHA tenants who applied seeking roughly $105 million in aid.
But all the money has been spent or spoken for. It’s unclear if there is any left for public housing tenants.
“I don’t think it’s fair, to be up in the air like this,” Dominick said.
Weather
Expect a mostly sunny day with gusty wind and temps in the mid-40s. The evening will be mostly clear with temps dropping to near 30.
alternate-side parking
In effect until Saturday (Lincoln’s Birthday).
Fish-eating mayor concedes: He’s not strictly vegan
Mayor Eric Adams talked about his plant-based diet during the campaign last year, talking up salads, beets, lentils and green smoothies. In his first month in office, he announced a new “Vegan Friday” program for the city’s public schools.
But he acknowledged on Monday that he was “imperfect” and did not always follow a strictly vegan diet.
The admission came after Politico reported on Saturday that he regularly dined on fish at Osteria La Baia, an Italian restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. A spokesman for the mayor, Maxwell Young, denied to Politico that Adams eats fish.
Adams said on Monday that New Yorkers should “ignore the noise” and the “food police” — reporters trailing him in restaurants. He appeared annoyed that he kept getting asked about his diet.
“Those who have questions on what I am eating, I’m over 18 and I know how to take care of myself,” he said. “If you haven’t noticed, look at the pictures of yesteryears and then look at the pictures now. I wear my suits so much better than I did eight years ago.”
A shelter operator pleads guilty in a bribery scheme
The former chief executive of one of the largest operators of homeless shelters in New York pleaded guilty to pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from contractors in a scheme that went on for years as homelessness in the city grew to record numbers.
The executive, Victor Rivera, agreed to forfeit $1.2 million to the federal government, according to court documents. The plea came after a New York Times investigation revealed allegations of sexual misconduct and financial misdeeds at the nonprofit organization he ran, the Bronx Parent Housing Network. It has received more than $274 million in city funding to operate shelters since 2017.
The latest Metro news
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More than 130 firefighters responded to a fire at a building under construction that collapsed in Brooklyn. No serious injuries were reported.
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After completing several days of excruciating Navy SEAL training known as “Hell Week,” one candidate from Manalapan, N.J., Kyle Mullen, died. Another was hospitalized.
Should streeteries stay?
The coronavirus pandemic moved restaurants onto the sidewalks and into the streets. Should they stay there?
N.Y.C. Mayor Eric Adams’s New Administration
Schools Chancellor: David Banks. The longtime New York City educator, who rose to prominence after creating a network of public all-boys schools, takes the lead at the nation’s largest public school system as it struggles to emerge from the pandemic.
Police Commissioner: Keechant Sewell. The Nassau County chief of detectives becomes New York City’s first female police commissioner, taking over the nation’s largest police force amid a crisis of trust in American policing and a troubling rise in violence.
Commissioner of Correction Department: Louis Molina. The former N.Y.P.D. officer, who was the chief of the Las Vegas public safety department, is tasked with leading the city’s embattled Correction Department and restoring order at the troubled Rikers Island jail complex.
Chief Counsel: Brendan McGuire. After a stint as a partner in a law firm’s white-collar practice, the former federal prosecutor returns to the public sector to advise the mayor on legal matters involving City Hall, the executive staff and administrative matters.
Transportation Commissioner: Ydanis Rodriguez. The Manhattan council member is a trusted ally of Mr. Adams. Mr. Rodriguez will face major challenges in his new role: In 2021, traffic deaths in the city soared to their highest level since 2013, partly due to speeding and reckless driving.
Health Commissioner: Dr. Ashwin Vasan. Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, the current commissioner, stays in the role to provide continuity to the city’s pandemic response. In mid-March, Dr. Vasan, the president of a mental health and public health charity, will take over.
Deputy mayors. Mr. Adams announced five women as deputy mayors, including Lorraine Grillo as his top deputy. Philip Banks III, a former N.Y.P.D. chief who resigned while under federal investigation in 2014, later announced his own appointment as deputy mayor for public safety.
Executive director of mayoral security: Bernard Adams. Amid concerns of nepotism, Mayor Adams’s brother, who is a retired police sergeant, will oversee mayoral security after he was originally named as deputy police commissioner.
That question will loom over a City Council committee hearing today on making sidewalk and roadway cafes permanent. The city permitted bars and restaurants to set up on sidewalks and in the streets as an emergency measure to save a devastated industry, which employed as many as 340,000 people before the pandemic closed in and restaurants closed down, many for good.
Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement relayed by a spokesman on Sunday that “it’s so important to make this program permanent.” But he added that it was important to “get this legislation right, with clear guidelines that work for everyone.”
The New York City Hospitality Alliance, a trade group that represents restaurants and bars, has pressed to make the outdoor facilities permanent. On Sunday, Andrew Rigie, executive director of the alliance, tweeted a photograph of the mayor after a gathering at Mario’s, a storied Italian restaurant on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.
The City Council hearing comes as a suit filed against the city moves through State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Last week, Justice Frank Nervo rejected the city’s motion to dismiss the case. “From the beginning, we wanted a hard look at the environmental impact of a program that’s as big as this,” said Leslie Clark of the West Village Residents Associations, a member group in the coalition known as Cue-Up. She is one of the 22 petitioners in the suit against the city.
They have picked up support from Andrew Ansbro, the president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. “It’s only a matter of time if these things become permanent that an engine company or a truck company is going to pull down the street and one of these structures is going to be in the way,” he said. “There are some streets where you can’t even get off the fire engine because the doors hit these structures.”
What we’re reading
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Curbed asked five businesses that operate in the Clark Street subway station in Brooklyn how they’ve been managing since the station closed for maintenance.
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There’s the Olympic Games. Then there’s Competitive Winter Picnicking in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Magazine reports.
METROPOLITAN diary
Recognition
Dear Diary:
I was a college student living in Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn, and I had started practicing Nichiren Buddhism, which includes a lengthy recitation each morning.
One morning when I was running late, I stepped onto the F train to find it packed as usual. Grabbing something to hold on to, I quietly and discreetly began to recite from my little liturgy book.
Halfway through, I glanced up and realized the woman standing next to me was reciting the exact same prayers.
We smiled at each other and carried on. I never saw her again, but I have never forgotten her.
— Brad Larsen-Sanchez
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Melissa Guerrero, Olivia Parker and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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