Empty NYCHA Apartments Pose Safety Risks, Opportunities for Squatters: Report – City Limits

Squatters took up illegal residence in hundreds of empty NYCHA apartments in recent years, as the units waited for often extensive repair work before they could be rented out again.

The growing number of vacant apartments at the New York City Housing Authority is creating safety risks in buildings, a city Department of Investigation report says—including opportunities for squatters and trespassers, who’ve taken over hundreds of empty units in recent years.

The report, published Tuesday, calls for NYCHA to keep better tabs on its vacant homes, the majority of which are awaiting—often extensive, and legally required—remediation work after the prior tenant moved out and before they can be rented again.

There were more than 6,800 unoccupied units at NYCHA as of January, housing authority data shows (that includes 751 apartments already paired with tenants who were waiting to move in).

While that number may seem small out of the roughly 150,000 units in NYCHA’s traditional public housing portfolio, vacancies have spiked in recent years, more than doubling since the start of 2022. Meanwhile, 165,000 applicants are on NYCHA’s waitlist.

“NYCHA apartments that sit vacant reduce the already limited availability of the City’s public housing stock, and without appropriate security measures, pose a public safety risk for public housing residents, employees and contractors,” DOI Commissioner Christopher Ryan said in a statement accompanying the report.

Investigators issued several recommendations, including that the housing authority conduct monthly inspections of empty units—to “check for signs of unauthorized occupants”—and that it look into upgrading its locks to avoid multiple vacant apartments being accessible via the same key, as is NYCHA’s current practice.

In a statement to City Limits, a spokesperson for NYCHA pointed to an ongoing partnership with the NYPD “to root out criminal activity in vacant units”—an effort, initiated by NYCHA, that’s removed “unauthorized occupants” from 635 vacant apartments since 2023.

Those removals resulted in 81 arrests, including on charges of trespassing, criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the DOI report. In one May 2023 incident, an alleged member of the “Sex Money Murder” gang was found shot to death in a vacant apartment at the Castle Hill Houses in the Bronx, the report says.

“We have accepted DOI’s recommendations and will continue this work in support of our joint mission to provide safe housing for NYCHA residents,” NYCHA Spokesperson Andrew Sklar said in a statement.

The housing authority cites several reasons for the growing vacancies, including its aging buildings and ongoing funding constraints. NYCHA residents live in their apartments an average of 25 years, so units often need extensive renovations before they can be turned over to a new tenant.

City Limits is looking to speak to NYCHA residents with empty units in their buildings. Email us: [email protected]

That frequently includes costly lead paint and asbestos abatement—required by local law and under NYCHA’s federal monitorship—work which takes an average of four to six months to complete, officials have said. In general, it takes the housing authority an average of 326 days to “turnaround” a vacant apartment for new occupancy, according to the most recent public data.

Despite this, NYCHA says it moved more than 4,703 new households into apartments last year, up from 4,052 in 2024 and a 52 percent increase over 2023. 

City Councilmember Chris Banks, who heads the Council’s Public Housing Committee, said the DOI report confirmed many of the issues lawmakers raised during a hearing in June on NYCHA vacancies.

“We knew that there was a security concern that existed. We knew that NYCHA was not doing the proper inspections,” Banks told City Limits Tuesday.

“It’s a management problem,” he added. “There’s also obviously a need for funding, but NYCHA needs to put a plan together.”

With additional reporting by Patrick Spauster.

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