It’s not just lead.
New York’s embattled public housing agency admitted Wednesday that it is out of compliance with federal laws and regulations on mold and overtime spending, as well as labor and contracting practices.
Officials made the stunning revelation near the end New York City Housing Authority’s board meeting and said they will formally notify the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development in early August.
“We want to be transparent,” said interim NYCHA board chairman Stanley Brezenoff, who was brought in by Mayor Bill de Blasio to oversee the struggling agency in April.
“We want to be absolutely sure that when NYCHA — when I — put my name on something that we are being fully forthcoming,” he added. “We will be focused on identifying areas of noncompliance and fixing them.”
According to the letter, NYCHA officials said they say they found shortcomings across the authority’s operations: overtime rules, staffing, bid requirements, emergency management plans, staff training, oversight of tenant protections and mold remediation.
The letter also says the agency remains out of compliance on lead.
It’s the second year in a row NYCHA has told federal authorities it is out of compliance and provides new evidence of the breadth of the dysfunction at the nation’s largest public housing authority.
Brezenoff said the disclosures were voluntary and not required by the federal government or prosecutors, who recently brought and settled a lawsuit against City Hall for conditions at NYCHA.
“Clearly, part of our issue now is the perception of the agency of not having been transparent, not having been forthcoming,” Brezenoff said. “This is prophylactic.”
It’s a dramatic change for an agency that hid its failure to conduct lead inspections for years and then only quietly disclosed it to HUD, all while continuing certify — under penalty of perjury — the work was done.
That scandal, which erupted as city officials began to acknowledge children were poisoned by lead in public housing, eventually cost former NYCHA chair Shola Olatoye her job.
Since then, city officials have conceded that up to 820 children who live in NYCHA projects tested positive for levels of lead that the Centers for Disease Control considers dangerous. The source of the lead remains unclear in many cases because the city never investigated.
The false certifications also triggered a federal investigation by Manhattan prosecutors into NYCHA and conditions in public housing, which ended in a settlement that could cost City Hall a whopping $2.2 billion over 10 years.
The resulting report exposed horrific living conditions that officials and employees covered up, going so far as construct fake plywood walls to hide problems.
The disclosures Wednesday came as longtime NYCHA watchdogs and critics sounded the alarm about the authority’s newly appointed executive in charge of ensuring it complies with federal law.
NYCHA’s general manager Vito Mustaciuolo named Vilma Huertas — a veteran of the authority and the wife of a top state lawmaker — as Chief Compliance Officer this week.
Huertas was first hired at NYCHA in 1994 and was most recently the Corporate Secretary for NYCHA’s Board of Directors where she “where she acted as a key advisor to Board Members and a conduit between the Board and the Executive Team.”
Huertas is married to Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz (D-Brooklyn), who chairs the body’s Housing Committee and was a supporter of disgraced former NYCHA chairwoman Shola Olatoye.
“It raises questions about NYCHA’s commitment to reform,” said Councilman Ritchie Torres (D-The Bronx), who has been a leading critic of the housing authority. “It represents the triumph of patronage over progress.”
NYCHA’s main tenant group wasn’t happy with Huertas’s appointment either.
“She’s just a part of the machine,” said Elie Hecht, an attorney for the Citywide Council of Presidents, the main NYCHA tenant group.
Huertas replaces Edna Wells, who was appointed by de Blasio as the interim head of the unit in November.
NYCHA officials defended the appointment.
“This is the 21st century. When hiring, we look at work experience, not marriage licenses,” said authority spokeswoman Jasmine Blake. “Vilma has spent her entire career fighting for NYCHA residents, and is immensely qualified for this position.”
