NYCHA’s New Physical Needs Assessment

NYCHA’s Physical Needs Assessment (PNA) is a critical resource for effectively evaluating capital investment needs, as well as for planning and prioritizing capital investments, across NYCHA’s properties. Conducted approximately every five years as recommended by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the PNA involves assessing when in the next 20 years the physical assets that make up NYCHA’s buildings and campuses will require replacement or upgrade, and then estimating the costs for these renovations based on current market prices.

Updated PNA results

NYCHA’s 2023 PNA estimates 20-year physical needs of $78.3 billion across 264 public housing properties that NYCHA currently directly manages, comprising 161,400 apartments. This is a 73 percent increase since 2017, when the Authority assessed a $45.3 billion need, and represents the amount of funding required to bring developments to a state of good repair and ensure their long-term viability. Fifty-four percent (or $42.1 billion) of the total need identified relates to assets requiring replacement immediately or within the next year, and 77 percent (or $60.3 billion) of the total need identified relates to assets requiring replacement within the next five years.

Factors for five-year increase

The 73 percent increase since the last PNA is due to decades of federal disinvestment and the resulting deterioration of infrastructure and assets, coupled with increased costs for construction and materials and the inclusion of additional scope areas (such as lead-based paint, decarbonization of heating systems, and expansion of waste management and security systems).

Total costs under new PNA

Apartments, heating systems, building exteriors, and plumbing account for $57.8 billion (or 74 percent) of the total physical needs. The remaining 26 percent of physical needs comprise a range of building systems and components as well as grounds improvements.

How NYCHA plans to close the gap and address its capital needs

The PNA findings reaffirm the importance of bringing desperately needed investment to NYCHA properties through the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program and the Public Housing Preservation Trust. NYCHA estimates that approximately $38 billion, or about half of the total PNA estimate, could be addressed through the current targets of PACT, the Comprehensive Modernization program, the Trust, and more than 750 ongoing and planned capital projects.

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