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NYCHA gets a big discount on utility bills. NY Reps want to let the agency keep the savings.
By
David Brand
Published Apr 11, 2023
Modified Apr 11, 2023
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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
By
David Brand
Published Apr 11, 2023
Modified Apr 11, 2023
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Reps. Dan Goldman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and some of their colleagues want the feds to keep their hands off tens of millions of dollars in heat and electricity savings across New York City’s ailing public housing system, as local leaders try to scrape together funds for needed repairs and upkeep.
Goldman, a first-term member representing parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, is urging a Congressional committee to let the New York City Housing Authority hold on to about $50 million in savings it is forced to send to the federal government each year.
In a letter to the House Appropriations Committee, Goldman and six colleagues said the utility savings would help “address potentially life-threatening harm to public housing residents, including loss of heat in winter, loss of air conditioning in summer, lead, mold, broken elevators and locks.”
Ocasio-Cortez, along with Reps. Gregory Meeks and Ritchie Torres also signed the letter.
NYCHA negotiates lower rates with the utility companies that provide heat and electricity to its roughly 178,000 apartments but sends half of those savings to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development — despite a 1998 law meant to let public housing agencies keep that cash.
NYCHA officials say they need about $40 billion to cover necessary repairs and investments across its decades-old housing stock, though that estimate has likely ballooned with age and inflation.
“It is absolutely essential that HUD abide by existing federal law to ensure the estimated $50 million in savings NYCHA has aggressively negotiated with utility companies is reinvested in NYCHA capital repairs instead of the federal government’s coffers,” Goldman said in a statement Monday.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development said it could not comment on pending budget legislation.
NYCHA spokesperson Michael Horgan said Goldman’s proposal “would allow NYCHA to provide financial security against shortfalls.”
The strategy by some members of New York’s delegation is the latest attempt by local representatives to secure cash for NYCHA, which has little left over in reserves as it faces growing rent debt and mounting repair costs under the terms of a settlement imposing strict federal oversight.
The city’s House delegation had backed a huge NYCHA stimulus through the failed Build Back Better bill, but a revised version of the legislation excluded most public housing funds.
Some of the members who signed Goldman’s letter also joined a demand from Rep. Nydia Velázquez that state lawmakers cover NYCHA tenants’ pandemic-related arrears. Tenants who owe NYCHA were excluded from a state relief fund that paid back rent on behalf of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, putting them at risk of eviction while straining agency finances.
“The pandemic created a once in a lifetime crisis for public housing residents and public housing authorities,” Velázquez said. “Through no fault of their own, many of the city and states’ most vulnerable residents have been left severely indebted.”
NYCHA has depleted its cash reserves in part, the agency says, because tenants owe more than $450 million in back rent. The agency’s interim CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt has said NYCHA will first focus on getting money from or possibly evicting tenants who owe rent from before the start of the pandemic.
“By working with our partners in Albany, we can find the funding in the upcoming state budget to make sure that federally subsidized tenants are given the relief that they need and deserve,” Bova-Hiatt said.
This story was updated to include a remark from The Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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David Brand
David is a reporter covering housing for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 908-310-3960.
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