More than 20 years after the city housing authority promised to make thousands of apartments “fully accessible” for wheelchair users, they’re way behind schedule, records show.
NYCHA has upgraded a mere one-third of the goal set by an agreement with the federal government made in 1996.
Back then, NYCHA negotiated a settlement with the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development by agreeing to make 5% of its apartments “fully accessible.” That’s about 8,900 apartments.
To date, just 2,953 apartments have been fixed.
Nearly half, or 47%, of the authority’s 2,462 buildings (1,146) remain inaccessible to wheelchair users as of this week, according to NYCHA records requested by the Daily News.
Of that, NYCHA believes the vast majority cannot be made accessible going forward due to structural conditions, such as entrances too close to sidewalks and too far off the ground to accommodate a ramp.
About 20% of NYCHA’s 400,000 tenants are age 62 or older, and tenants who use wheelchairs or walkers are constantly requesting transfers to fully accessible units.
“NYCHA makes every effort to accommodate people with physical disabilities, including making buildings and entrances more accessible as well as modifying individual apartments,” said Zodet Negron, agency spokeswoman.
Negron said the authority has set aside $16.65 million this year to “to improve accessibility at various sites throughout all five boroughs. Some of the $3 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency money appropriated to fix developments hurt by Hurricane Sandy will also go to make buildings compliant.
“Our goal is to make all of our partially accessible units fully accessible,” she said.
All buildings built after 1992 and any building that makes significant alterations must comply with accessibility requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Most of NYCHA’s buildings are much older than that, with 60% built before 1960. But NYCHA nevertheless agreed to try and address the problem in its 1996 deal with HUD.
Honoring that promise won’t come cheap. NYCHA estimates it would cost $2 billion to meet the 5% goal set in 1996.
The cash-strapped agency forecasts gaping holes in its budget in the coming years, and fears deep cuts from the Trump administration. Some 56% of NYCHA’s cash comes from the feds.
Making just one building accessible can cost taxpayers a fortune.
At the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, tenants asked Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer about installing five new wheelchair-accessible ramps.
Van Bramer assumed the whole thing could be done for $500,000 and wanted to put it on the ballot for participatory budgeting, which allows residents to vote on how to spend the Council’s discretionary cash.
He asked for a cost estimate. He was stunned by NYCHA’s response.
“While this project is a good suggestion, please note that the projected cost (hard & soft) for one ramp to be approximately $700,000,” a NYCHA official said in an email.
That would push the project cost to $3.5 million, more money than is available for all the participatory budgeting initiatives in the district combined, so it can’t be put on the ballot.
“It shocked me,” Van Bramer said. “At that level of cost we’ll never get to full accessibility.”
NYCHA spokeswoman Negron dubbed the $700,000 estimate a maximum that includes widening doors, modifying lobbies and sometimes additional steps to meet all ADA requirements. The cost of any ramp project varies based on conditions at the site, she said.
“Unfortunately, wheelchair ramp accommodations can be very costly,” Negron noted. “Most NYCHA buildings, which are between 40 to 70 years old, were not built to easily make modifications.”
Several projects are now underway to make parts of developments accessible. None are inexpensive.
NYCHA will drop $577,000 to upgrade restrooms at the Vladeck Houses in the Lower East Side and another $1.1 million to upgrade restrooms at a senior center in the Astoria Houses in Queens.
At the Patterson Houses in the Bronx, NYCHA will spend $11.2 million this year to upgrade all the buildings. Construction is set to begin next month.
