Mayor Eric Adams has named two veteran officials to lead New York City’s public housing system and guide the sprawling bureaucracy through major financial needs, federal oversight requirements and a controversial shift to private management at campuses across the five boroughs.
NYCHA interim CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt will take over the top job on a permanent basis, the agency confirmed to Gothamist. Bova-Hiatt, NYCHA’s former general counsel, stepped in to replace her ex-boss Gregory Russ in September after he resigned in the wake of a botched arsenic warning to residents of the Jacob Riis Houses in the East Village.
Adams also named former state Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner James Rubin to take over as chair of the NYCHA board. That position was also held by Russ until he departed in January.
“Lisa Bova-Hiatt has proven that she has what it takes to run this city within a city, and Jamie Rubin brings the wide-ranging experience and critical skills to guide NYCHA’s rejuvenation,” Adams said.
Roughly 528,000 New Yorkers are authorized to live in NYCHA’s 177,000 apartments, though many more live in a system that is crucial to preserving affordable housing in a city of gaping inequality.
But years of federal disinvestment and local mismanagement have taken their toll on the agency, leading to an estimated $40 billion backlog in capital needs and conditions that have subjected tenants to toxic lead paint, broken elevators, heat and hot water outages, and doors that don’t lock.
Under Russ, the agency accelerated plans to shift thousands of NYCHA apartments to private management and switch the source of federal funding attached to each unit. NYCHA also pushed for an alternative to private management, called the Preservation Trust, which state lawmakers enacted last year.
Bova-Hiatt has steered the agency in the same direction, with NYCHA now supporting a development team’s once-unthinkable proposal to tear down apartment buildings across two Chelsea campuses…
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