Reforming NYCHA: Federal, local officials tour complexes

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - In unrelated events, a federal official and a New York City official toured separate public housing complexes in New York on Monday.

HUD Regional Administrator Lynne Patton visited NYCHA's Patterson Houses in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx.

From a temporary boiler put in place seven years ago that repeatedly breaks down, to a weekend without running water, residents of the Patterson Houses have been living with uncertainty and discomfort for years.

Now HUD's Patton is hoping to change that. She will spend a week with a family as their guest and will seek to get a view of life in NYCHA from the inside out. Patton will then a week each in three more developments. She said the experience will give her some additional insights she can pass on to NYCHA and the federal monitor.

Earlier Monday, NYCHA interim chair Kathryn Garcia visited the Vladeck Houses on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Garcia, who is taking a leave of absence at the city's sanitation commissioner, toured the complex with Nancy Ortiz, the president of the residents' association.

Garcia told us that fixing the problems at the largest public housing developments in the United States is a "huge and daunting amount of work but you just have to get started."

Garcia said she expects to be in the interim position for about three months until the federal government and the city agree on a permanent chairperson.

Fox 5 broke away from the media pack to visit the home of Carlos Jusino, his wife, and their three young children. He told me that lead inspections were never done in the apartment. We heard the familiar litany of ongoing issues, including paint chips and mold.