FORT GREENE — Nearly 250 apartments at the Walt Whitman and Ingersoll Houses sit vacant while thousands wait for public housing openings citywide, according to a new report by Comptroller Scott Stringer.
More than 100 of those residences have stood empty for nearly a decade due to "repairs and major modernization," the report said.
Stringer recently audited the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), which oversees the city's public housing, and found 217 empty units in the Ingersoll Houses and 26 empty units at the Walt Whitman Houses.
NYCHA provided those numbers to Stringer's audit team in December and September of 2014, respectively.
Some of the vacant units are being used as management offices or space for police while others are under renovation, NYCHA said.
According to the report, there were 2,342 empty apartments citywide and 273,391 families on a waitlist as of December 2014.
The audit also found that NYCHA apartments stood empty for seven years on average, and that there are 80 apartments in the city that have been vacant for more than a decade.
"It’s beyond the realm of explanation how years can pass before apartments become habitable," Stringer said in a statement. "NYCHA’s ineptitude comes at a very steep price to taxpayers: more than $8 million in estimated lost rent that could have helped to pay for repairs and services to directly benefit its residents."
Squatters have also become a problem at some public housing complexes like Harlem River Houses, where auditors found graffiti all over the walls of vacant units, as well as empty liquor bottles on the floor and trashed apartments.
NYCHA officials said that the vacancy rate is low compared to previous years and it has already started capital repair projects at many developments.
“NYCHA has a record low vacancy rate of only 1 percent — the lowest it’s been in nearly 10 years," the authority said in a statement. "With thousands of families on the waiting list for public housing and residents with critical pending transfer needs, managing and turning over our vacant apartments effectively and efficiently is vital to our operations."
