Results tagged “housingauthority”

Last week, 8-year-old Destiny Antonio survived a seven-story fall from her family's Bronx apartment window at the Castle Hill Houses. Though her window had a guard, her mother Robin Antonio believed the top part of the window might have been faulty, an issue she allegedly complained about to the NYC Housing Authority on a previous occasion. Now the Post reports that the Administration for Children's Service "served Antonio with a court order to produce for interviews the four other children and two grandchildren who live with her. An ACS spokesman said the move is routine procedure whenever there's been a serious accident involving a child." However, Antonio says, "They should be looking at the Housing Authority and their negligence." And little Destiny is still in the hospital in serious condition—she has a broken pelvis, hip and leg.

The NY Times has a sad update about the family of the 5-year-old boy who fell to his death when a housing project elevator malfunctioned last year. The Times says, with the family of Jacob Neuman (pictured) is suing the Housing Authority for negligence, the HA wants to interview Jacob's brother, 9-year-old Israel who witnessed his brother fall from the 10th floor. However, his parents' lawyer has asked a judge to waive the testimony. The Neumans are worried about Israel's state of mind—"in play therapy, he drew an elevator shaft with red at the bottom," though he acts out against classmates, kids consider him a "rachmoonus" (pity) case— and a court-appointed psychologist wrote, "His defenses are so brittle that when thoughts regarding the incident reach or are introduced into his consciousness, he becomes despondent and he desperately defends against them. It is quite possible, given his present state, that serious mental decomposition may occur. That this will occur is not certain; if it does, it will be devastating indeed." The Housing Authority has a bad track record elevators; there are other lawsuits against the HA over elevator maintenance.

A study released yesterday showed that the elevator in the Williamsburg building where 5-year-old Jacob Neuman died last month had failed 17 of its previous 21 Housing Authority inspections. That elevator was also supposed to be renovated back in 2004, but it was put off twice due to spending cutbacks. The renovation would have provided the elevator with a door restrictor that doesn't allow doors to be opened while the elevator is in between floors, a device that could have saved Jacob's life. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer plans to propose legislation requiring restrictors, saying, "It is unacceptable that the lack of a $400 device might have cost a human life." The study found that in the last five years 75% of Housing Authority elevator inspections resulted in "unsatisfactory" ratings in what Stringer called "a culture of neglect."

Yesterday, the New School held a forum to discuss how New York City will save its public housing. The New York City Housing Authority, which is the city's primary sources of affordable housing to 400,000 residents, has an annual shortfall of $225 million.

Another noose was found Thursday afternoon - and this time, it was outside the Church Street Post Office. Um, WTF is going on?

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn gave a speech at an Association for a Better New York event yesterday that seemed to be a preview into Quinn's 2009 mayoral campaign. According to CityRoom, the speech "seemed to be steered toward showing Ms. Quinn to be a responsible, knowledgeable fiscal heavyweight who would be an effective watchdog of New York City’s financial health."

"Hard Times in the Projects," an in-depth review of New York City's publicly subsidized housing program, reveals how living conditions have declined over the past few decades. Federal legislators have reduced funds while operating costs have soared. As a consequence, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) struggles to maintain its buildings, collect the trash, or respond to service calls. Residents have experienced rent hikes and service cuts, and face the possible closure of senior centers and community programs. While New York State and City governments also cut funding during the 1990s and 2000s, the administrations of Bloomberg and Spitzer have recently anounced the restoration of some subsidies.

Not only is that a struggle that every starving artist is facing, but also those who are just trying to pay the average housing cost in a city where rents are skyrocketing. As many of our friends and colleagues have had to do - get a day job and work on your art at night so you can pay the rent.

Sometimes people just don't like dogs, and one of those people is Jeanne Farley. Farley is suing her apartment's management company to, as she tells the Daily News, "get rid of the dogs and play by the rules." Sixty-four year old Farley has a fear of dogs (cynophobia) points out that the rules at Penn South does have a ban on dogs and her lease says "no animals of any kind" (!!) are not allowed. She says, "I can't go in the elevator if there's a dog in there, and I'm afraid to go in some of the hallways. I've never been bitten, but the growling, the teeth and the jumping just scares me."

City Councilman Eric Gioia will be demanding that the NYC Housing Authority explain why over 200 registered sex offenders are living in public housing. NYCHA policy - and federal law - prohibits sex offenders from residing in Post puts it, "they are filled with children and other vulnerable targets and in the past were havens for criminals." And the Daily News notes that this past week, a registered offender attacked a woman at the Ravenswood Houses in Long Island City.

The Staten Island Advance had an interesting tale of pet ownership and living in city housing. Patricia Leonardo, a tenant in the Mariners Harbor Houses, complained about roaches in her apartment, only to be evicted for owning two dogs in the apartment. A building manager also accompanied the exterminators, and since the New York City Housing Authority prohibits more than one dog or cat (though many pet owners do have more than one dog or cat and get away with it), that's a lease violation! Leonardo thinks the NYCHA is kicking her out for making a stink about the roaches, but of course there's another wrinkle:

The exterminators who visited Ms. Leonardo's apartment concluded that her housekeeping contributed to the roach problem, she said.

Continue reading "Roach Complaint Leads to Eviction Over Dog Ownership"

City Comptroller William Thompson released a report criticizing the city's housing authority for leaving thousands of city-owned apartment vacant for too long. On average, 2107 apartments were left empty for 40 months while the Housing Authority would renovate the apartments, and Comptroller Thompson pointed out that the city could have made $4 million more in rental income if the apartments were vacant for an average of 32 months.

- There's a ROBOT PARADE tomorrow at noon under the Manhattan Bridge in DUMBO (Pearl Street, between York and Front Streets.) Seriously!

A Bronx woman's 2 year old daughter died in their cold apartment - and the mother is blaming it on the lack of heat. Accoding to the Daily News, Jasmine Morales says that her apartment was so cold that she wrapped her baby Jaylee in "a large, heavy fleece blanket in her bassinet," and now she thinks Jaylee suffocated. Morales says she made numerous complaints, including calling 311 and contacting Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrion's office about it, but her building's management company claims that she only made one complaint, and was not there the two times someone showed up to fix the issue. Gothamist thinks this is terrible, but the building's management should tread lightly when dealing with a grieving mother.

Huh. We knew that the main reason that the city switched all 11,000 odd traffic lights and "Walk/Don't Walk" signs was because the LEDs they used were energy efficient. But we didn't realize how much more efficient (90 percent!), nor did we fully realize that it was part of a much larger plan on the part of the City to lead by example in energy efficiency. Not only that, but apparently, according to the grey lady, the plan is working.

Woman: He's at his office.Gothamist is kind of dying to call and ask "Is your refrigerator running?" but perhaps the next time there's a nutty plot twist on Law & Order (like Serena Southerlyn being gay!), we'll call him, though we'd prefer his IM.