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NEW YORK, New York (WCBS) — NYCHA says it’s found squatters in just over two dozen units over the past few months as it’s launched a new monthly inspection program for vacant units.
The new inspections are the result of a New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) report from March that revealed squatters took over at least 548 vacant NYCHA units from 2022 through 2025.
In one instance in 2023, a squatter was arrested at an apartment at the Mitchel Houses and charged with child neglect.
That same year, police said they found a pistol and two alleged gang members in vacant units at the Surfside Gardens Houses, and the body of an alleged gang member who’d been shot to death was found in a vacant unit at the Castle Hill Houses.
“It’s a significant risk,” said Nadia Shihata, commissioner of the DOI.
She said she thinks NYCHA is improving, however.
“I think we’ve seen some good progress. They have implemented the recommendation of having a monthly inspection protocol, so they are now inspecting vacant apartments on a monthly basis,” she said.
Dan Greene, NYCHA’s executive vice president of property management operations, says those monthly inspections, which started in April, found and drove out squatters from 27 units so far.
“We have seen some activities … that need to be investigated, so I do think it’s a safety concern and we need to stay on top of it,” he said.
NYCHA says its staff moves right in when someone moves out of a unit to get the home ready for a new tenant ASAP.
But that same DOI report in March found the number of vacant NYCHA apartments more than doubled over the last few years to over 6,000.
“That number increased really due to our use of increased environmental work during the turnover period,” Greene said.
In other words, new requirements for lead and asbestos treatment are adding to the turnover time.
The mayor’s office announced earlier this year it’s dedicated hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few years to restoring more vacant NYCHA units.
There are currently 159,000 applicants on NYCHA’s waitlist, so in an affordable housing shortage, those turnovers become even more important.
Residents have also voiced concerns about unauthorized people in other parts of the building. The head of the tenants association at the Frederick Douglass Houses on the Upper West Side took photos and videos of individuals sitting on blankets in a stairwell and laying on cardboard in a hallway.
NYCHA says those are not apartment squatters, but loiterers, and they’re now looking into it. The agency says NYCHA staff and residents should call 911 or 311 to report loiterers.
Meanwhile, last winter, a CBS News New York Investigation found that inspectors find about 60-70 cases per year of NYCHA tenants committing various types of housing fraud, including illegally subleasing their homes. NYCHA says they have a zero tolerance policy for that and they work with law enforcement to stop it.
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