Regional HUD director sees improvement at NYCHA, blasts Mayor de Blasio
RED HOOK, Brooklyn (WABC) -- Regional HUD Director Lynne Patton said things are improving at NYCHA public housing, but she says it's not fast enough and she blasted Mayor Bill de Blasio.
"I don't want to turn this tour into a de Blasio-bashing session because that's way too easy," Patton said.
On Monday, Patton toured the Red Hook Houses in Brooklyn.
In 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Patton to head HUD's Region Two office, which oversees all public housing in New York and New Jersey.
She often visits NYCHA apartments and earlier this year event spent a month living at various NYCHA apartments.
In the last few months the mayor has committed more money to NYCHA.
A federal monitor has been appointed to oversee repairs and NYCHA has a new chairman, Gregory Russ from Minneapolis, who started at NYCHA earlier this month.
On Monday, Patton toured three different apartments at Red Hook Housing. In one there was a dangling light bulb, with exposed wires next to a shower. Also there were shoddy repairs, replacing a water pipe that had burst. Patton said mold is a big problem at the complex. It house 12,000 New Yorkers.
Patton said things are beginning to improve, but ridiculed de Blasio's presidential campaign.
When asked about the mayor's claim that he wants to eradicate all lead in public housing, Patton said, "The mayor hasn't eradicated anything except his polling numbers."
Also, Patton said de Blasio, "unfortunately is not only physically absent but emotionally and physically absent from the (city's) problems as well."
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