Housing Project
There were many telling details in Matt Chaban’s piece on the New York Housing Authority in last week’s Observer. One quote, however, really leapt out. A housing expert at City Hall explained everything you need to know about the authority’s chairman, John Rhea: “He’s focused on the product, not the politics,” the expert said, “and that has its perils.”
No wonder Mr. Rhea found himself on the firing lines recently. The Daily News carried out a campaign that had readers believing Mr. Rhea was an incompetent hack who was sitting on a billion dollars in unspent money while tenants suffered in conditions worthy of a Dickens novel.
As Mr. Chaban’s excellent report noted, the real story of Mr. Rhea’s tenure at the Housing Authority is, well, a little more complicated than critics acknowledge.
The Housing Authority truly is a city of its own. Read More
