The city agency that polices housing code violations has for years publicly posted inspection results for all privately-owned housing — but not inspection results in public housing apartments.
That’s kept NYCHA tenants in the dark about sometimes dangerous living conditions and the Housing Authority’s failures to remedy them.
That’s about to change. Under a settlement reached last month, the Department of Housing & Preservation Development (HPD) has agreed to begin posting details of all inspections performed in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments on its portal HPD Online.
They were supposed to begin doing that a long time ago after the city’s administrative code was changed in January 2023 requiring HPD to post publicly the results of all its inspections of NYCHA units. Eight months later THE CITY reported on how those inspections were still not public.
The New York Legal Assistance Group wrote to then-HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrion, pressing him to follow the law, and in October the group filed a lawsuit against HPD in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Two weeks ago NYLAG and HPD reached a settlement in which HPD agreed to begin posting all inspection results in NYCHA buildings starting Sept. 15. In exchange, NYLAG agreed to drop the suit.
HPD made no admissions of wrongdoing, but did agree to pay NYLAG $10,000 for legal fees.
“HPD has been actively working to implement the state law requiring the agency to provide information about HPD violations issued to NYCHA as a result of Housing Court-requested inspections. HPDOnline is a key resource for property owners and tenants, and we’re proud to make even more information accessible to New Yorkers each year,” said Natasha Kersey, Deputy Press Secretary at HPD.
“The settlement marks a significant milestone in the fight for housing justice for NYCHA tenants and underscores the importance of equal access to information for all tenants, regardless of who owns their building,” said Danielle Tarantolo, Director of NYLAG’s Special Litigation Unit. “This agreement affirms that NYCHA tenants deserve the same transparency and accountability as every other New Yorker.”
NYCHA is currently overseen by an independent monitor picked by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) and the Manhattan U.S. attorney as a result of an agreement in which NYCHA promised to abate lead paint, clean up toxic mold, fix busted elevators and heat systems and address chronic pest problems by set deadlines.
The authority owns 175,000 aging apartments across the city that have been plagued for years by deteriorating conditions. Recently NYCHA began shifting management of thousands of these units to private developers under a program known as Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD). To date 37,000 are in the program, with another 25,000 scheduled to be transitioned in the coming years. HPD was already posting violations of NYCHA properties as they were transferred into the RAD program.