{"id":185442,"date":"2026-04-04T13:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185442\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T13:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:17:08","slug":"74-nycha-execs-boast-200k-plus-salaries-as-nyc-tenants-go-without-heat-hot-water-basic-repairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185442\/","title":{"rendered":"74 NYCHA execs boast $200K-plus salaries \u2014 as NYC tenants go without heat, hot water, basic repairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York City Housing Authority is widely considered one of the Big Apple\u2019s worst landlords, <\/a>yet its top execs are living large in mansions on huge taxpayer-funded salaries \u2013 even as residents sometimes wait years for basic repairs.<\/p>\n

The cash-strapped, city-owned agency saw all 104 of its upper-management honchos pocket $22 million combined last year \u2013 all made at least $140,000 annually, and 74 pulled down $200,000 or more, a Post examination of NYCHA records shows.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s more than double NYCHA\u2019s nearly $11 million spending on exec salaries in 2015, when its upper-management team was 34% smaller, totaling just 79 execs.<\/p>\n

Despite the New York City Housing Authority being one of the worst Big Apple landlords, executives like CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt are living lavishly in large homes on top of racking up huge taxpayer-funded salaries. Zohran Mamdani\/ X<\/p>\n

Leading the way is CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt, whose base salary is an eye-watering $399,999. <\/p>\n

She owns a $1.4 million home on Staten Island\u2019s tony Todt Hill, about a mile from NYCHA\u2019s Todt Hill Houses.<\/p>\n

David Rohde, NYCHA\u2019s executive VP for legal affairs, pulls down $301,198 and lives\u00a0in a $2.8 million waterfront estate on the North Fork of Long Island.<\/p>\n

Despite execs living high on the hog, the embattled authority \u2014 which saw 70 past and present staffers arrested in 2024 and later convicted following the\u00a0largest single-day bribery takedown<\/a>\u00a0in the U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s history \u2014 currently has 610,000 open work orders. <\/p>\n

NYCHA also estimates it needs $78 billion <\/a>to repair its aging infrastructure, which houses more than 511,000 residents across 335 public housing projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cNYCHA executives are cashing out off of the suffering of residents, and living large on the taxpayers\u2019 dime,\u201d ripped Rev. Kevin McCall, a civil-rights activist and longtime NYCHA critic.<\/p>\n

Leila Green, 63, points to wall damage in her apartment at the McKinley Houses in The Bronx at 905 Tinton Ave. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

Green had to patch water damage to the walls of her McKinley Houses\u2019 apartment, but she said the fix is temporary. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cThey turned public housing into a new hustle, with residents an afterthought, rather than saying \u2018let me not take a raise\u2019 so the money can go back into fixing the infrastructire, so that the living conditions have basic dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

NYCHA\u2019s own internal data<\/a> shows it takes 449 days on average \u2013 or roughly 15 months\u2013 to resolve tenants\u2019 non-emergency repair requests like clogged tubs and broken refrigerators, compared to 370 days just two years earlier.\u00a0<\/a> <\/p>\n

Some repair requests \u2014 for routine fixes like faulty pipes \u2014 remain unresolved more than five years later, according to residents.<\/p>\n

As of last month, paint jobs took an average of 616 days to complete, electrical work 237 days, plumbing 233 days, and elevator repair 101 days.<\/p>\n

NYCHA\u2019s top five earners by base pay for 2025. Jack Forbes \/ NY Post Design<\/p>\n

For many tenants living with mold, rats and other vermin is the norm.<\/p>\n

Leila Green, 63, of the McKinley Houses in The Bronx, said NYCHA officials shouldn\u2019t be living the high life when her home of 30 years is a wreck and routinely infested with roaches and rodents.<\/p>\n

NYCHA management has yet to address requests she put in five years ago to fix plumbing leaks, cracked walls and floor damage, Green added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be able to live in a decent, clean place without roaches and rats and be able to live like normal people,\u201d she said. \u201cThey do a poor job because they don\u2019t repair anything \u2014 and don\u2019t even answer the phone when you call.\u201d<\/p>\n

NYCHA reps, however, insisted Friday there\u2019s no open work orders to make repairs in Green\u2019s apartment.<\/p>\n

They insisted her bathroom is freshly\u00a0painted and that workers would soon paint the rest of her apartment, replace her floor tiles and make other improvements.<\/p>\n

Although Mayor Zohran Mamdani inherited many of NYCHA\u2019s problems when he took office in January, the silver-spoon socialist<\/a> quickly came under fire from public-housing residents for briefly\u00a0banning them from testifying <\/a>at \u201crental ripoff\u201d hearings his office began hosting citywide.<\/p>\n

The landlord-bashing sessions target private property owners, conveniently ignoring that the Housing Authority routinely tops a yearly list complied by the city Public Advocate of NYC\u2019s \u201cworst\u201d landlords.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor is responsible for NYCHA and will have to deal the city being the worst landlord,\u201d said McCall, who began hosting independent hearings citywide to address issues NYCHA residents face after they were shut out of Mamdani\u2019s \u201cRental Ripoff Hearings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t just about neglect. This is exploitation at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

NYCHA\u2019s upper-management team under Mamdani has grown by two staffers, to 106, including former Deputy Comptroller Erin Villari, who was hired<\/a> as the authority\u2019s $276,710-a-year chief administrative officer in February.<\/p>\n

Six other six-figure jobs are currently vacant and need to be filled, according to NYCHA\u2019s latest staff organizational chart dated March 9.<\/p>\n

Frances Garcia, tenant president of the McKinley Houses, said residents at the decaying five-building complex recently went through a hellish winter where they were routinely without heat, gas and hot water <\/a>\u2013 even during an historic cold stretch in which NYC temperatures were sometimes lower than parts of Antarctica.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to walk around with two bathrobes on,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen it\u2019s really hot like it was a few days ago, we get heat, so why aren\u2019t we getting heat when it\u2019s cold?\u201d<\/p>\n

David Rohde, NYCHA\u2019s executive VP for legal affairs, pulls down $301,198 and lives\u00a0in a $2.8 million waterfront estate on the North Fork of Long Island. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n

NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt owns a home valued at $1.4 million in the Todt Hill neighborhood of Staten Island. Helayne Seidman for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Despite NYCHA officials\u2019 sky-high base salaries, some blue-collar staffers pocketed even more cash last year by racking up huge amounts of overtime. Senior officials typically don\u2019t get overtime.<\/p>\n

Jakub Markowski, a Housing Authority supervisor plumber, was the city\u2019s biggest OT hog <\/a>for the fiscal year that ended June 30. <\/p>\n

He scored a staggering $331,814 in extra pay off 2,558 OT hours worked \u2014 rocketing his yearly earnings to $465,034.<\/p>\n

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NYCHA then attributed the obscene OT to \u201cextensive plumbing and heating demands that are mandated and monitored by law.\u201d<\/p>\n

NYCHA spokesperson Barbara Brancaccio defended upper management\u2019s salaries, saying \u201ctheir\u00a0compensation\u00a0is\u00a0commensurate\u00a0with\u00a0their civil service titles\u00a0and\u00a0reflective\u00a0of\u00a0the size of the agency,\u00a0the\u00a0scope of their\u00a0responsibilities,\u00a0and\u00a0their\u00a0level\u00a0of\u00a0experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She also said that while NYCHA has a backlog in work orders, plenty of repairs are still getting done. <\/p>\n

\u201cNYCHA executives are cashing out off of the suffering of residents, and living large on the taxpayers\u2019 dime,\u201d ripped Rev. Kevin McCall, a civil-rights activist and longtime NYCHA critic. Leonardo Munoz for NY Post<\/p>\n

Last year, NYCHA was slammed with 2.5 million new repair-work orders, but resolved 2.49 million, said Brancaccio.<\/p>\n

\u201cNYCHA\u2019s senior management team\u00a0is\u00a0comprised\u00a0of\u00a0dedicated\u00a0public servants with\u00a0decades of\u00a0proven\u00a0public policy and government\u00a0expertise,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese remarkable\u00a0professionals\u00a0have\u00a0joined\u00a0the Authority\u00a0during a\u00a0pivotal\u00a0period\u00a0of massive\u00a0and\u00a0historic\u00a0organizational\u00a0reform\u00a0to ensure\u00a0the agency\u2019s\u00a0compliance\u00a0with federal and local laws\u00a0and regulations,\u00a0including\u00a0the mandates outlined in\u201d a landmark 2019 settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requiring NYCHA to address long-standing, systemic health and safety issues at its public housing sites, said Brancaccio.<\/p>\n

Matthew Rauschenbach, a spokesperson for the mayor, insisted NYCHA tenants were never prohibited from participating in the Rental Ripoff Hearings, adding \u201cinvestments in NYCHA will be central to our forthcoming housing plan.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have already begun our engagement with NYCHA tenant leaders and look forward to rolling out robust, borough-by-borough engagement soon so that we can bring the voices of NYCHA tenants back to City Hall to inform our work,\u201d Rauschenbach said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York City Housing Authority is widely considered one of the Big Apple\u2019s worst landlords, yet its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[60729,6337,57,9,56,63,65,64,305,307,564,34595,16999,58,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-185442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-executive-compensation","9":"tag-mansions","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-nycha","17":"tag-public-housing","18":"tag-rent","19":"tag-rodents","20":"tag-salaries","21":"tag-us-news","22":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}