Audit Report On The Timeliness Of The Renovation Of Vacant Apartments By The New York City Housing Authority

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

This report determined whether the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) had adequate controls to minimize the length of time that apartments were held vacant for capital renovation purposes. NYCHA’s goal is to provide decent and affordable housing for low- and moderate-income City residents. It strives to maintain a safe and secure living environment for its public-housing residents by rehabilitating and modernizing its buildings and units. To facilitate renovations and for other purposes, NYCHA policy provides for the temporary removal of apartments from the rent roll. As of October 13, 2005, NYCHA had 3,552 units temporarily off the rent roll—approximately two percent of all NYCHA-managed apartments. Of these, 3,073 (87%) were off the rent roll for capital renovations.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The audit revealed that during the period reviewed, NYCHA generally did not have adequate controls in place to minimize the length of time that apartments were held vacant for capital renovation purposes. NYCHA did not have overall time budgets for completing renovations that addressed the need to minimize the amount of time apartments were kept off the rent roll. As a result, apartments remained vacant for longer periods than necessary. Our review of vacant apartments at a sample of six developments undergoing large-scale capital renovations found that as of October 13, 2005, the 2,107 units that were vacant for renovation purposes had been off the rent roll for an average of about 40 months. The implementation of overall time budgets would have helped ensure that residents were not relocated for periods longer than necessary and would have helped make apartments available in a more timely manner for applicants on waiting lists for public housing. In addition, minimizing the amount of time that apartments were off the rent roll would have resulted in increased revenues due to additional rental income for NYCHA. During the course of this audit, NYCHA officials outlined certain initiatives that they stated the agency has implemented to facilitate better planning and coordination of its capital projects.

Audit Recommendations

The audit recommended that NYCHA:

• Establish time budgets or goals for the completion of its capital renovation projects. These time budgets should apply to every stage of the process, including the design, contract, tenant-relocation, and construction stages.
• Designate a management entity responsible for monitoring the entire process of tenant relocation and building renovation to ensure that established time budgets or goals are followed as much as possible.
• Evaluate its project-cost-estimation practices and, if necessary, implement additional controls to ensure that cost estimates of capital renovation projects adequately reflect the scope and quality of work to be performed.
• Coordinate the removal of apartments from the rent roll and the relocation of tenants with the established time budgets for capital renovation projects so that the time that apartments are kept vacant and off the rent rolls is minimized.

Agency Response

In its written response to our draft report, NYCHA generally agreed with the audit’s recommendations.