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Bloomberg Appoints I-Banker To Head Housing Authority
By
Jen Chung
Published May 14, 2009
Modified May 14, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published May 14, 2009
Modified May 14, 2009
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Mayor Bloomberg appointed a former Wall Street investment banker to head the troubled NYC Housing Authority. The NYCHA oversees over 177,000 apartments in 340 development in all five boroughs—the NY Times says this makes John Rhea, who used to work at Lehman Brothers and JPMorgan Chase, "in effect, the city’s biggest landlord." Bloomberg said, "John's experience makes him the perfect person to lead our efforts to create long-term financial stability at the Authority, and to ring in a new era of transparency and agency responsiveness to improving resident and community quality of life." However, some critics of the Bloomberg administration were upset with the pick: City Councilwoman Letitia James issued a statement questioning Rhea's lack of "experience in managing a low-income public housing authority of this size and scale...particularly at a time when private equity firms are purchasing under-performing housing developments, and converting them to luxury housing throughout the City" while Councilwoman Rosie Mendez told the Times, "All I see is a Wall Street person with an investment banking background and with no experience in housing management or development."
Tagged
affordable housing
bloomberg
i banker
John Rhea
nyc housing authority
nycha
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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