By Bill Parry
The Ravenswood Houses in Astoria figured prominently in a scathing report by the city comptroller’s office in an audit released last week. It showed the New York City Housing Authority keeps apartments off the rent rolls for an average of seven years while doing major repairs costing the city more than $8 million in lost rent.
The audit found five Ravenswood apartments have been vacant for more than seven years, removed from the rent rolls for renovations, roof repairs and major modernizations. An additional 49 apartments at Ravenswood were removed from the rent rolls for elevator rehabilitation and one apartment was found vacant 400 days after an elevator was returned to service.
“We observed that many of the apartments at Ravenswood which were still vacant at the time of our visits appeared ready to be rented,” the auditor said. Across NYCHA a total of 80 apartments have been left vacant for over a decade, and another 161 apartments have been empty for between three and 10 years.
“The fact that NYCHA has left 80 apartments vacant for over a decade ,and another 161 apartments sitting empty between three and 10 years, is simply unacceptable,” City Comptroller Scott Stringer said. “The more than 270,000 New Yorkers who are waiting for housing deserve much better treatment than that. It’s well past time for NYCHA to start getting it right.”
In addition, while the authority claims to have 2,342 vacant apartments, the audit made clear that NYCHA’s figures were estimates at best, with some of the units actually occupied by squatters and other city agencies, according to the report.
The authority answered in a statement saying, “NYCHA has a record low vacancy rate of only 1 percent—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.”
A lack of resources is blamed, but increased capital work like roof replacement to be funded by the recently announced $300 million commitment by the mayor, will help reduce the amount of repair work at developments and free up staff for repairs required to rent units.
The audit recommends that NYCHA streamline repair operations and keep better reports on vacant apartments.
“We have a housing crisis,” Stringer said. “People are desperate for homes. You cannot keep vacant apartments off the market for years and years with no explanation and no strategy to fix up those units.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
