Friday, December 07, 2018

De Blasio meets with Ben Carson in DC to talk future of NYCHA



By Marisa Schultz and Nolan Hicks

December 6, 2018 | 9:42pm


Bill de Blasio (left) and Ben CarsonJames Messerschmidt/Getty Images



Mayor de Blasio met for an hour Thursday in Washington with federal housing chief Ben Carson to discuss the future of the city’s scandal-rocked Housing Authority.

The meeting comes a week before a key hearing in Manhattan federal court that could determine the future of the agency.

“De Blasio came to Washington to present his version of triaging NYCHA’s woes and presenting himself in person as a gesture of cooperation with HUD,” said one source.

Both sides described the meeting as productive, but offered few details.

The goal was to get City Hall and the feds on the same page with regards to an overhaul plan, after federal Judge William Pauley disapproved a previously proposed settlement. Pauley said that agreement — which would have put NYCHA under a federal monitor and injected an additional $2.2 billion for repairs — didn’t go far enough.

But the source said neither side wants to put NYCHA into ­receivership.

“This administration’s HUD can barely keep up with their day-to-day, let alone a new project that will have an intense microscope,” the source said.

NYCHA, which provides housing for more than 400,000 New Yorkers, faces a $31.8 billion bill to repair its 325 complexes.




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