Mayor Adams demotes NYCHA commissioner following poisoned water results at Jacob Riis Houses

 

Politics NY 

A major shakeup is coming to the leadership structure of the city’s public housing authority.

Mayor Eric Adams’ office announced Thursday the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) current chair and CEO Greg Russ will step back as the authority’s chief executive, following an arsenic contamination scare at the Jacob Riis Houses on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Russ will stay on as chair, according to a release, as the roles of CEO and chair that have typically been held by one person are split into two separate jobs. The authority’s general counsel Lisa Bova-Hiatt will serve as interim chief executive until they find a permanent replacement.

“We cannot wait any longer to make transformational changes so NYCHA can provide safe, high-quality homes for New Yorkers,” Adams said. “I am determined to work with my partners in government to identify the right leaders and the right structure for NYCHA to deliver on our promises to public housing residents. I want to thank Lisa Bova-Hiatt for her dedicated service to our city and for stepping up at this critical time to put NYCHA on the right path.”

The news comes after a rough couple of weeks for the embattled public housing authority. Nearly two weeks ago, NYCHA and the mayor’s office told Jacob Riis residents their tap water had tested positive for arsenic and advised residents not to drink or cook with the water for nearly a week.

But late last week, the city reversed course, sharing that the lab who’s tests yielded the positive arsenic results – Environmental Monitoring and Technologies – retracted those results and released revised results that were negative for the toxic substance. A day later, Adams announced the water at Jacob Riis was safe to drink and cook with again, posting a video of himself and city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan drinking cups of water from the development’s taps.

Adams’ office says it wasn’t notified about the positive arsenic test until several days after NYCHA was aware of the results. During an unrelated press conference Monday, Adams said the delay in notifying his office was “unacceptable” and hinted at the leadership change announced Thursday.

“We were notified on Friday, they were notified on Monday, it’s unacceptable,” Adams told reporters. “And so we know there’s new leadership that’s about to take place at NYCHA and we’re looking at exactly what happened here.”

 

Judge calls NYCHA a criminal landlord...then he vanished

  

 

NY Daily News

That was the message from a Queens Housing Court judge outraged by the agency’s failure to provide hot water to as many as 300 tenants in a Rockaway apartment building since November, the Daily News has learned.

“If this was a private small landlord he [the landlord] would be in jail by now,” Judge Kimon Thermos said during a Jan. 20 hearing. “He would have been in jail by now and the fines would have been $500 per day, per apartment. So he would have been in jail and he would have been losing his building too.”

As a city-run agency, the New York City Housing Authority is not eligible for the same penalties as a private landlord who neglects its properties and tenants.

“Why is your crime shielded this way?” Thermos asked a NYCHA lawyer. “NYCHA is dropping the ball big time here.”

Tenants in Carleton Manor say NYCHA did little for months to fix the water problem that makes taking a shower a major undertaking. Dozens of tenants have filed a petition in Housing Court seeking to force NYCHA to make repairs at the 174-unit building on Beach Channel Dr. and Beach 74th St. in Arverne.

“This is the dead of winter,” said Alisha Robinson, 42. “We need this corrected. We need some attention on fixing this.”

“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” she said. “I have to go to a hotel to take a decent shower.”

 

The legal fight began Nov. 29, when one tenant, Shaniya Callender, filed a petition to get the water problem fixed. That yielded no progress, so on Dec. 28, 45 tenants signed a petition threatening housing court action if no repairs were made by Jan. 10.

That deadline came and went, so the tenants took NYCHA to court. At the Jan. 20 hearing, Judge Thermos was outraged that NYCHA’s work on the building was being overseen by an unlicensed plumber.

The judge said he was considering issuing a subpoena demanding NYCHA Chairman Gregory Russ appear in court. But before he could, Thermos was replaced on the case by a different judge, for unclear reasons.