City Comptroller and 2025 mayor’s race hopeful Brad Lander is pitching a plan to improve the Big Apple’s vast but crumbling public housing stock, as a group of New York City Housing Authority tenant leaders will on Saturday announce their support for his City Hall bid, amNewYork has learned.
Lander’s plan, which his campaign shared exclusively with amNewYork ahead of its April 5 release, aims to strengthen oversight of NYCHA repairs, triple the city’s capital spending on public housing upgrades, and allow every campus to hold a majority vote over how to rehabilitate their development.
NYCHA, which houses 517,000 New Yorkers, has an estimated $78 billion in capital needs. Many developments are plagued by issues like boilers going out in the dead of winter, lead paint, and elevator outages.
“NYCHA residents deserve safe, modern homes, vibrant communities, and the chance to build better lives,” Lander said in a statement. “My platform is a bold commitment to public housing—not just preserving it, but elevating it as a central pillar in solving New York City’s housing crisis, which will, in turn, advance racial and economic equity and deliver a future where NYCHA residents are full partners in the city’s success.”
The comptroller also rolled out a slate of endorsements from public housing tenant leaders on Saturday. They include Aixa Torres, president of the residents association for the Alfred E. Smith Houses in lower Manhattan; Brenda Temple, a tenant at Oceanside Apartments in Queens; and former Gowanus Houses Tenant Association President Theresa Davis.
“From the day he took office, Brad listened, respected, and even sought out the voices of NYCHA residents, which is why we’re overwhelmingly proud to endorse him as the next mayor of New York City,” Torres said in a statement. “No city leader has worked side-by-side with us like Brad. I trust his honesty and integrity as a leader entirely, and our city needs him to help curb disorder, stand up for our values, and bring us back on track.”
Lander’s plan would launch a “Yelp for NYCHA Repairs” — named after the app that allows customers to post reviews of businesses. The system would allow tenants to rate repairs on their apartments, including if the work was actually done, which would be reviewed by the city before vendors get paid, according to a copy of the plan.
According to the plan, the feedback would then be used to establish “Vendor Scorecards” for all contractors performing repairs on NYCHA units. It would also inform a “Vendor Watchlist” for contractors placed on “corrective action plans.”
The plan also calls for allowing every NYCHA development to decide by majority vote whether to enter a couple of rehabilitation programs or keep its campus as is.
Currently, public housing residents can only decide by a majority vote on whether to enter their campus into the “NYCHA Preservation Trust.” The trust is a recently established public benefit corporation that allows NYCHA developments to convert federally funded Section 9 public housing units into Section 8 project-based units, providing them access to billions of dollars in federal capital funding for major renovations.
According to his campaign, under Lander’s proposal, NYCHA residents will also be able to decide by majority vote whether to join another program known as Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT). The program puts NYCHA developments under private management, which also allows them to convert from Section 9 to Section 8 and access new revenue streams.
Lander also wants to triple the city’s funding for capital improvements across NYCHA over the next decade. Those funds would go toward updating boilers and elevators and addressing consistent issues like lead, mold, and rat infestations.
Furthermore, the comptroller’s plan would utilize the Preservation Trust to build permanently affordable housing across income levels. He also pledged to reserve a portion of 50,000 affordable homes he plans to build on public land, including four public golf courses, for NYCHA residents.
