Consider the abysmal federal-inspection scores for the three Upper East Side housing projects to be just the first in a long wave of grim reports.
After all, it’s only months since federal prosecutors exposed the New York City Housing Authority’s “how-to-fool-the-feds” handbook for deceiving inspectors, and the agency’s strategy of literally papering over gaping structural problems.
Residents of Holmes Towers, Isaac Houses and Robbins Plaza told The Post that the latest findings were no surprise to them. They’ve been reporting mold, unsafe elevators, unlit halls and so on for years.
But don’t trust the higher scores for other NYCHA facilities: It can take inspectors several cycles to catch every problem, and there’s no guarantee that some workers and managers didn’t keep their playbooks.
After all, it wasn’t until last month that higher-ups acted on the goings-on at the Throggs Neck Houses in The Bronx: staff sex parties on the clock, while repairs went undone. And, in a sign of how high the rot goes, one staffer disciplined over the orgies was the daughter of a top NYCHA exec.
If there’s any silver lining here, it’s that the staff work once wasted on fooling inspectors can now go into actual repairs. That may only make a tiny dent in the agency’s $32 billion capital-repair backlog, but at least it’s a start.
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