City-Issued Violations at NYCHA Developments Are Now Public, Following Legal Settlement 

NYCHA residents can now look up housing code violations for their buildings online, something tenants in privately-owned properties have long been able to do. The new data comes a week after the partial collapse of a NYCHA building in the Bronx that’s reignited fears about conditions in public housing.

For the first time, housing code violations issued by the city at NYCHA properties are now publicly available—what advocates say is a win for transparency, giving public housing residents information about their buildings that tenants in privately-owned properties have long had access to. 

The city’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD) has begun publishing the NYCHA violations in its online portal, as well as on the NYC Open Data website, as part of a legal settlement approved in June. The records so far date back about a month, and include more than 500 violations issued following court-ordered apartment inspections (HPD inspectors typically only come to NYCHA-owned apartments if ordered to so by housing court).

“This transparency will empower NYCHA residents to better understand their apartment conditions and advocate for themselves and their communities,” Danielle Tarantolo, director of the Special Litigation Unit at New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), said in a statement Tuesday.

The legal services group filed a lawsuit over the issue last year on behalf of NYCHA tenants, including Stewart Gracia, who moved into NYCHA’s Jacob Riis Houses in lower Manhattan five years ago, where he experienced “a bedroom ceiling leak, chronic roach infestation, lack of heat, mold and hot water outages,” according to NYLAG.

“But because HPD did not publish information about violations in his and his neighbors’ apartments, he could not investigate violations in the building before he moved in, could not determine whether there were open housing code violations in his building for the same or similar housing conditions, and could not search the HPD website for open housing code violations to use as evidence in his Housing Court case,” NYLAG said in a press release.

The change comes a week after the partial collapse of a NYCHA building in the Bronx that’s reignited fears about conditions in public housing. On Oct. 1, officials say there was an explosion in a chimney at the Mitchel Houses in Mott Haven—and while no injuries were reported, the incident spurred concerns from lawmakers, advocates and tenants alike.

“NYCHA residents have been sounding the alarm about crumbling infrastructure for decades,” Community Voices Heard, an advocacy group whose members include public housing tenants, said in a statement following the collapse. “Our members’ pleas fell on deaf ears. How many more buildings have to collapse? How many more families have to be displaced before our elected officials prioritize the lives and safety of public housing residents?”

The housing authority says it has an estimated $78 billion in repair needs across its roughly 2,500 buildings. In recent years, citing decades of government disinvestment, NYCHA has turned to alternative funding models, including leasing its land to private developers to drum up more money for fixes.

As of August, NYCHA had more than 614,000 open work orders. In a statement Tuesday, NYCHA Chief Operating Officer Eva Trimble pointed to the housing authority’s “ongoing transformation” and said tenants with issues are encouraged to call the Customer Contact Center to schedule repairs directly with its staff.

Residents can go a step further and ask a housing court judge to order an HPD inspection; the court would then be responsible for issuing orders or penalties for any violations found, according to HPD.

“NYCHA has worked closely with our partners at HPD to facilitate public access to Housing Court-ordered inspection information,” Trimble said.

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