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New York City Housing Authority


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About NYCHA - Fact Sheet

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What is NYCHA?
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) provides decent and affordable housing in a safe and secure living environment for low- and moderate-income residents throughout the five boroughs. To fulfill this mission, NYCHA must preserve its aging housing stock through timely maintenance and modernization of its developments. NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program in rental apartments. Simultaneously, we work to enhance the quality of life at NYCHA by offering our residents opportunities to participate in a multitude of community, educational and recreational programs, as well as job readiness and training initiatives.

NYCHA was created in 1934. By the end of 1935 NYCHA dedicated First Houses, our first development, located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The Way It Is Today
NYCHA is the largest public housing authority in North America. NYCHA's Conventional Public Housing Program has 178,137 (as of July 3, 2008) apartments in 343 developments throughout the City in 2,636 residential buildings containing 3,337 elevators (as of June 30, 2008). NYCHA has 12,600 employees serving 173,808 families and 403,535 authorized residents (as of June 30, 2008).
  • Based upon the 2000 Census, NYCHA Public Housing represents 8.3% of the City's rental apartments and is home to 5.0% of the City's population
  • NYCHA residents and Section 8 voucher holders combined occupy 12.6% of the City's rental apartments and comprise 7.8% of New York City's population.

    CONVENTIONAL PUBLIC HOUSING (July 3, 2008)
  • The Bronx has 98 developments with 44,116 apartments
  • Brooklyn has 100 developments with 58,156 apartments
  • Manhattan has 102 developments with 53,757 apartments
  • Queens has 26 developments with 17,505 apartments
  • Staten Island has 10 developments with 4,414 apartments
  • Six (6) developments consisting of FHA Acquired Homes are located in more than one borough and total 188 apartments
  • 42 developments are for seniors only; 15 seniors-only buildings exist within mixed-population developments
  • NYCHA has more than 10,000 apartments designated for seniors only
  • There also are 7,639 retrofitted apartments for families of persons who are mobility impaired as of June 30, 2008

    SECTION 8 LEASED HOUSING PROGRAM
  • 88,701 apartments were rented as of June 30, 2008
  • A total of 1,574 of these apartments, known as Portability Vouchers, are located outside of New York City
  • There are 31,462 participating-private landlords

How sffordable is public housing?
  • AS OF JUNE 30, 2008:
  • Families in the Conventional and Section 8 programs pay no more than 30% of their family income for rent. The rent difference is subsidized by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
  • Average family income in Conventional Public Housing is $22,402
  • Average monthly rent is $378
  • Working families account for 45.2% of NYCHA families
  • 12.7% of NYCHA families receive public assistance
  • Social Security, SSI, a pension, Veteran's benefits, etc., support 42.1% of the families
  • 34.9% of the households are headed by persons over 62 years-of-age
  • 37.8% of the NYCHA population are minors under 21 and 30.8% are minors under 18

The Waiting List for Public Housing
  • ON JUNE 30, 2008 THERE WERE:
  • 132,651 families on the waiting list for Conventional Public Housing (including 10,606 who are in certification process) 
  • 136,602 families on the waiting list for Section 8 Housing (including 11,840 who are in the certification process). The Section 8 waiting list had reopened on February 12, 2007 and subsequently closed on May 14, 2007. 
  • 47,965 applicants on both lists

How the selection process works. How long a wait?

NYCHA’s computerized Tenant Selection and Assignment Plan (TSAP) impartially chooses the next applicant for an apartment based on need priorities assigned to each applicant family and matches them to available vacancies as they arise. The TSAP system eliminates any and all interference from external entities and guarantees impartial selection of applicants for vacant apartments based strictly on the need priorities.

  • The turnover rate in calendar year 2007 for NYCHA conventional public housing apartments was 3.35%
  • The vacancy rate of apartments available for occupancy was 0.87% as of July 3, 2008.
  • Because of the varied need priorities that comprise a family’s TSAP profile and the low turnover and vacancy rates of apartments, it is virtually impossible to establish an average waiting time for a family to enter conventional public housing. Some applicants can be matched up with an available apartment in months, while others often have to wait years.

For The Record
  • Queensbridge Houses in Queens with 3,142 apartments is the largest development in the City
  • Brooklyn's largest development is Red Hook Houses with 2,878 apartments
  • Manhattan's largest development is Baruch Houses with 2,391 apartments
  • Edenwald Houses in the Bronx is the largest with 2,036 apartments
  • Stapleton Houses with 693 apartments is the largest development in Staten Island

New York City's Public Housing is constantly modernized and improved to preserve its availability for future generations. In the past 16 years, NYCHA has invested more than $6.1 billion in preserving our buildings.

  • As of July 1, 2008: Three developments are at least 70 years old; a total of 14 developments are at least 60 years old; there are 67 developments 50 to 59 years old; another 77 developments are 40 to 49 years old, and 89 developments are 30 to 39 years old.

It's More Than Just A Place to Live

NYCHA doesn't just provide a place to live. There are a wide variety of programs offered by NYCHA that are geared specifically to special age or special needs groups such as children, teens, single-parents, seniors, substance abusers, and victims of domestic violence, among others. NYCHA oversees a network of over 400 community facilities that include community centers, senior centers, health care centers, day care and Head Start educational centers.

Programs at many of these centers include sports, photography, painting, literacy classes and general education courses, computer training, arts and crafts, childcare feeding and lunch, and senior companion initiatives.


(Revised on July 8, 2008)



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