Schumer Strips House Provision that Would Have Gutted Affordable Housing Support for 13,000 NYCHA Units; Successfully Fought to Keep Annual Federal Funding, Which Included $75 Million Last Year, for New York City Public Housing

Press Release

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today announced that he had successfully stripped a provision in a House of Representatives housing appropriations bill that would have gutted funding for affordable housing in New York. In 2010, Schumer helped secure an additional $75 million in additional federal funding for public housing in New York by federalizing public housing units originally owned by New York State and New York City, but not paid for by those entities, leaving an annual gaping hole in NYCHA's already stretched-to-the-max operating budget. This funding was essential to making sure that the 13,000 New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) units that had been abandoned by the State and City were staffed and maintained properly. However, language passed out of the House Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development and Related Agencies (THUD) appropriations bill would have reversed this federalization process by barring these units from being eligible for federal assistance, leaving tens of thousands of units of public housing in New York without this essential funding that they had planned for and deserved.

Schumer said that defunding these properties would have devastated public housing in New York, and on NYCHA's precarious budget, and threatened the homes of thousands of families. Schumer pushed the joint Senate-Housing Conference committee to strike the House language, and today Schumer was happy to announce that the language had been successfully eliminated from the housing bill, paving the way for its passage by Congress and securing this essential funding for New York public housing.

"Today is a victory for tens of thousands of families and seniors in public housing in New York who no longer have to worry about a cruel provision that would have pulled the rug out from under them just as we enter the holiday season," said Schumer. "Tens of thousands of New Yorkers that would have seen funding for building repairs and staffing slashed can rest a little easier today because this essential funding is here to stay. When we successfully federalized these units, which the City and State had for many years abandoned, it was called the most significant affordable housing advancement in New York for many decades; turning back the clock and reversing this progress would be poor policy, hard-hearted and, in the end, is not acceptable."

In 2010, Schumer successfully fought to secure $75 million in additional operating subsidy for NYCHA in the President's Fiscal Year 2011 budget, after NYCHA federalized approximately 13,000 units of public housing throughout the city. These units were originally built by the city or the state, but received no financial support from the federal government. Support for the units from the city and state has dried up in recent years and neither the city nor the state regularly contributed operating money to keep the units afloat.

Under federalization, NYCHA was able to federalize these units by renovating them using stimulus funds as well as private money. Moreover, under the bill, subsequent appropriation dollars were to be awarded to the agency with the additional units counted towards their operation budget in every fiscal year going forward. The House proposal would have denied these units eligibility for federal assistance, leaving public housing in New York with millions less in funds.

Schumer said that today's victory stripping this language from the House Bill was an important step towards ensuring that tens of thousands of New Yorkers can feel safe in their homes.

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