City Comptroller Scott Stringer accused the New York City Housing Authority of “mismanagement and lax oversight” and of skimping on providing a required quantity of construction jobs to low-income tenants.
Stringer’s office released an audit today alleging that the authority allowed contractors to either ignore the law or overstate the amount being paid to residents of low-income housing complexes in the city.
“Federal law and NYCHA’s own Resident Employment Program are supposed to help public housing and low-income residents of New York City secure needed job opportunities, but auditors found huge gaps between what the agency said it was doing and the facts on the ground,” Stringer wrote in the report.
Federal guidelines state that contractors must try to draw more than 30 percent of the labor from NYCHA developments for a project costing more than $100,000, according to Crain’s.
The housing authority did not respond to Crain’s requests for comment. [Crain’s] — Mark Maurer