Squatters Scooping Up Empty New York City Public Housing Units That Sit Vacant For Months: Report

Mismanagement at New York City’s beleaguered housing agency allowed hundreds of squatters to take over vacant public housing units, a new report finds.The city’s Department of Investigation found what it called a growing safety risk involving vacant city-owned apartments being used as a base for illegal activities.The report found that the number of vacant New York City Housing Authority apartments rose from approximately 2,840 in January 2022 to 6,740 as of May 2025 with the average vacancy stretching to a year despite a waitlist of approximately 165,000 people seeking affordable housing.The long vacant periods are blamed on funding constraints that extend the time required to refurbish a vacant apartment to get them ready for new rentals. The average cost to complete the turnover process for a unit has ballooned to approximately $52,000.Among the issues driving up those costs is a 2019 city law that lowers the permissible level of lead-based paint in half. That change is lengthening refurbishment timelines and adding about $17,000 per unit.The report said that squatters were kicked out of nearly 550 vacant apartments between 2022 and May 2025. At least 81 people have been arrested on trespassing or drug and weapons charges. It highlighted several incidents in vacant apartments.In one instance, NYPD officers responded to a 911 call and found a victim fatally shot in a vacant apartment in the Castle Hill Houses in the Bronx. The NYPD reported that the victim allegedly was a member of the “Sex Money Murder” gang and had 28 prior arrests.In another case, squatters broke into a Mitchel Houses unit in the Bronx. A woman residing in the squalid apartment was eventually charged with child neglect.When workers finally went into a Surfside Gardens Houses unit in the Bronx to do turnover work, they found two people living in the unit who were reportedly members of the “Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation.” At least 18 members of the organization have faced a slew of federal charges, including racketeering, murder, and drug charges.The report cites the city’s housing authority for not inspecting vacant apartments to ensure that the unit is, in fact, vacant. It recommends that vacant apartments be checked on a monthly basis. It also criticized a rule that requires locks to be changed on vacant apartments to allow the same generic key to access any vacant city owned apartment. The current key system makes it easier for contractors to gain access to the unit but allows duplicated keys to be used to enter into any of the units.The Housing Authority has faced complaints for years. Tenants often complain about heating and hot water problems in cold months and pest infestations in summer months. Now it is having to defend itself for how it deals with units that don’t even have tenants.“Vacant @NYCHA apartments are not empty due to mismanagement or neglect — they are undergoing intensive, federally and locally mandated #health and #safety work so the next family moves into a safer, healthier home,” the agency said in a statement on X. It added that its vacancy rate is below the national public housing average.The authority — which controls more than 150,000 apartments in the city — said it would implement recommendations in the report but would need up to a year for some of them.

Squatters Scooping Up Empty New York City Public Housing Units That Sit Vacant For Months: Report

Squatters Scooping Up Empty New York City Public Housing Units That Sit Vacant For Months: Report

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