{"id":151862,"date":"2026-03-04T01:56:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T01:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/151862\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T01:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T01:56:25","slug":"hundreds-of-squatters-took-over-vacant-nycha-apartments-city-watchdog-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/151862\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Squatters Took Over Vacant NYCHA Apartments, City Watchdog Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 600 vacant NYCHA apartments were taken over by squatters over the last few years as the number of empty public housing units spiked, a frustrating trend for the 165,000 applicants stalled on the authority\u2019s waiting list.<\/p>\n

The city Department of Investigation (DOI) released a report<\/a> Tuesday revealing that in between January 2022 and May 2025 the number of empty apartments vacated by tenants and awaiting renovation had climbed from 2,800 to 6,700.<\/p>\n

DOI noted that until recently NYCHA did not regularly check on vacant apartments to see if they were actually vacant, stating \u201cthe absence of regular inspections increases the risk that trespassing and other illegal criminal activity can occur undetected in the vacant apartment and heightens security risks to the NYCHA community at large.\u201d<\/p>\n

DOI also noted that NYCHA had a policy of equipping all vacant units throughout a development within the same generic lock because using unique locks would, the authority reasoned, pose an operational challenge with many different workers accessing vacant apartments during renovation.<\/p>\n

But DOI nonetheless recommended NYCHA install locks that are unique to each unit, asserting that \u201cNYCHA\u2019s policy poses an unacceptable risk of facilitating unauthorized occupancy and even criminal conduct in vacant units, particularly in light of the absence of regular apartment inspections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting in 2023, NYCHA began partnering with the NYPD to target squatters across their portfolio of 160,000 units. Through last year they were able to reclaim 635 apartments occupied by unauthorized tenants. That included 81 arrests of squatters for a variety of charges including trespassing and drug dealing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before September 2024, NYCHA had no protocol in place for staff to address suspected squatters. They then began requiring employees to call the NYPD in response to trespassing, but \u201conly when there is a perceived imminent threat to public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that time NYCHA also began collecting information on vacant apartments with suspected unauthorized tenants. Within a year, they had a list of 305 units, DOI stated.<\/p>\n

The report released by Acting DOI Commissioner Christopher Ryan described a confluence of factors that keep apartments vacant for an average of a year. The units must be renovated, which can take months if lead paint and asbestos must be remediated. Also NYCHA\u2019s well-known money problems have contributed to delays in finishing renovations, in part because NYCHA prioritizes renovating occupied apartments.<\/p>\n

As a result, apartments sat empty and unmonitored for months, attracting trespassers who moved in and, in some cases, used the units as branch offices for drug dealing and other crimes.<\/p>\n

In December, for example, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton\u2019s office charged 12 individuals<\/a> with operating an open air narcotics market in the Johnson Houses in East Harlem. Dealers sold their wares in the development\u2019s courtyard and stored their supplies in vacant units they\u2019d commandeered, prosecutors alleged.<\/p>\n

The DOI report compiled by NYCHA Inspector General Ralph Iannuzzi described one incident in May 2023 where NYCHA realized a vacant apartment had been occupied in the Castle Hill Houses in the Bronx when the NYPD discovered the body of a man fatally shot inside the apartment. Police alleged he was a member of a gang called Sex Money Murder, had 28 prior arrests including for robberies and burglaries and was under investigation for robbery.<\/p>\n

That same month a NYCHA property manager discovered two men occupying a vacant unit in Surfside Gardens in Brooklyn. The NYPD arrested both, recovering a pistol and a .380 cartridge. Cops alleged they were affiliated with a gang called Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation.<\/p>\n

And after a legal tenant vacated a unit in the Mitchel Houses in The Bronx, NYCHA suspected someone had broken in and was living there. They contacted DOI, and in May 2023, when DOI and the NYPD entered the unit, they found piles of trash in one room and unwashed skillets on the stove. The unauthorized tenant was arrested and charged with child neglect.<\/p>\n

NYCHA spokesperson Michael Horgan noted that the authority began working with the NYPD to target squatters in 2023, adding, \u201cNYCHA works closely with DOI in many areas, and while they were not initially a part of these efforts and joined at a later stage, we have accepted DOI\u2019s recommendations and will continue this work in support of our joint mission to provide safe housing for NYCHA residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

DOI said NYCHA has agreed to begin using unique locks for each vacant unit and to start monthly inspections of apartments listed as vacant that are scheduled for renovation. Those inspections, however, aren\u2019t expected to start for another six months.<\/p>\n

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