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The embattled New York City Housing Authority has just 65 percent of its staff vaccinated as Mayor Bill de Blasio’s mandate kicks in — and leadership of its biggest worker union has gotten just a thumbnail sketch of plans to staff the nearly 300 complexes, The Post has learned.
Hizzoner’s mandate is kicking in against the backdrop of rampant maintenance backlogs and forecasts showing that temperatures are expected to fall into the 40s next week, meaning that NYCHA’s aged and troublesome heating systems will have to start up — and function.
“Unless the mayor moves back the mandate and gives people the time to go to the doctor, there’ll be a crisis,” said Greg Floyd, the head of the agency’s biggest labor union, Teamsters Local 237.
NYCHA has reached only 65 percent vaccinated workers. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Gregory Russ is the head of NYCHA. LETICIA BARBOZA
Greg Floyd, the head of the Teamsters Local 237, said de Blasio’s mandate will cause a “crisis.” Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
NYCHA encompasses hundreds of housing developments in the city. Gregory P. MangoHe said the only thing he’s been told by NYCHA chairman Greg Russ is that the agency would “consolidate” its grounds keeping operations across the Big Apple’s 285 public housing developments, which cover all five boroughs.
Floyd added that he’d been given no further details and called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to extend the mandate deadline — which came and went at 5 p.m. Friday.
The agency refused to detail its plans when asked by The Post on Thursday, with a spokeswoman opting instead to provide just a generic statement that it will “adjust operations accordingly as we have throughout the pandemic.”
The spokeswoman did not respond when the Post pressed again for details Friday.
