The New York City Housing Auth⛦ority is racing the clock to fix peeling and possibly lead-tainted paint in more than 2,800 apartments with young children to meet its commitment to a federal judge, The Post has learned.
The embattled agency first reported the tally in the second-to-last paragraph of court pape🦄rs filed with federal Judge William Pauley late on a Friday, in which it promised to complete the work by the end of February.
The filing also revealed that only 190 of the pote๊ntially 2,862 lead-tainted units with kids had been remediated by the Dec. 11 court filing date, leaving a backlog of 2,672 apartments.
To meet its own deadline, the agency would have to make repairs in some 49 apartments every wor🃏kday between Dec. 11 and Febܫ. 28.
Critics are skeptical NYCHA can meet that critical target for a judge who 🍌has criticized its operations and who has the power to put the city’s entire public housing system un♎der federal receivership.
“They’ve been doing it for months. They’ve gotten 190 done,” said Elie Hecht, who reps NYCHA’s Citywide Council of Presidents tenant organization. 🐲“At the rate they’re going, they’ll be lucky if it’s Februa🍒ry 2020.”
The agency insisted it is on track to meet the ambitious goal — but refused to provide data that could corroborateꦺ its claim.
“As of this Friday, we have attempted 100 percent of apartments that require inspections, showing our aggressive effort to meet our maℱndated deadline,” agency spokeswoman Jasmine Blake said last week.
But NYCHA wouldn’t say when it began cleaning up the first 190 apartments. Instea𓆏d, officials told The Post to file a Freedom of Information Law request, a process that can take months.
The agency al♍so said it has notified affected residents — without providing a time frame or details.
In 𝄹the court fili🀅ng, NYCHA said it mailed 165,000 lead disclosure letters to tenants, including 3,278 copies to households with children under 6 living in apartments believed to have lead paint.
Federal regulations require NYCHA to visual🍰ly inspect 48,618 apartments in buildings where lead paint has been previously found, accounting for more than a quarter of the authority’s 176,000 apartments.
As of last week, NYCHA ❀said, it had inspected and foun⛄d paint issues in more than 34,000 of the apartments. All must eventually be fixed, but NYCHA said it prioritized the 2,862 units with young kids.
The sprawling housing agency 🅷has been rocked by a succession of scandals in recent months.
Perhaps the most egregious offense was when NYCHA’s then-chair, Shola Olatoye, falsely certified to the US Department of Housing and Urban Develop𓆉ment in 2016 that the agency was in compliance with all lead paint inspections when it was not.
The 🔴coverup first expl𒁃oded into public view in November 2017, when the city Department of Investigation exposed the scandalous behavior.
Then, this past August, Health Department officials revealed that 1,160 children who lived in NYCHA housing had tested positive for levels of lead that the federal government considers dangerous — although the sou🅷rce of contamination in ma♑ny cases remains unclear.
Federal prosecutor꧙s in Manhattan sued NYCHA over the lead lies and scandalous living conditions last summer, which put the authori♎ty in Pauley’s hands and set the stage for a possible federal takeover of the agency.
The city has until Jan. 31 to strike a deal with federal prosecutors and HUD on a rescue plan to pr🍎esent to the judge.