McKee’s New Housing Sec. Was at Center of Mold and Failed Heating Controversies in NYC

McKee’s New Housing Sec. Was at Center of Mold and Failed Heating Controversies in NYC

 

Governor Dan McKee named Deborah J. Goddard to serve as the new Rhode Island Department of Housing Secretary on Thursday.

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Her salary as Secretary will be $238,597.

Most recently, she was a private consultant, but prior to that, Goddard served as the Executive Vice President for Capital Projects at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) from 2016 to 2019.

 

NYCHA, A Big Agency With Big Problems

During her tenure, her agency had a $3.2 billion budget.

While in New York, her agency was investigated for several crises that fell under her areas of responsibility.

Tens of thousands of apartments in the NYCHA were found to have elevated levels of mold, which sparked investigations and massive lawsuits.

Under Goddard, there were major controversies relating to the condition of the housing units — specifically failed heating.

At one point in March of 2018, during Goddard's tenure, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo threatened to take over the struggling NYCHA.

 

 

Mold Impacts Tens of Thousands of Units Under Goddard's Term

In 2017, NY1 investigated the mold contamination. According to the report by NY1, NYCHA had faced thousands of complaints and a number of lawsuits — some going back years prior to Goddard joining the agency, but continuing during her tenure and increasing in severity:

Four years ago, NYCHA residents and community groups, including an organization known as Manhattan Together, brought a class-action lawsuit against the housing authority, claiming mold was a chronic condition in the city's public housing system, particularly harmful to those tenants with asthma.

In 2014, the city settled the case, promising to take care of the mold issues.

That promise, Edwards says, did not hold up.

"We realized that instead of completing repairs in seven or 15 days, they were completing work orders in seven to 15 days, and to actually complete a repair it took multiple work orders. The reports were clearly dubious and I think deliberately so," Edwards said. "The reports were designed to mislead us."

He says NYCHA was trying to get around the settlement's requirements.

Who was making the case for NYCHA? Ponce and Clarke, the same two people who took the fall for the lead scandal.

They each filed declarations with the court, arguing the city was in compliance with the mold settlement.

Clarke wrote, "NYCHA felt it was meeting this standard and could continue to meet this standard."

Six months later, a judge vehemently disagreed:

He wrote, "NYCHA has been out of compliance with the Consent Decree from the day is was entered by this Court. NYCHA's justifications for its failure to comply are inadequate, and the attitude of NYCHA officials appears to be one of indifference."

The judge appointed what's known as a special master to oversee the program.

The authority filed quarterly reports with the court, updating them on how quickly they were addressing the issue.

For simple mold complaints, NYCHA would have to fix it in seven days on average. For more complex problems, it was 15 days.

Years after the settlement, we know Cortes waited for months to get her issues resolved.

"As you can see the sink is right behind you, it's just sitting there," Cortes told me on June 15.

"And you're not going to get one until mid-July?" I asked her.

"Nothing until mid-July," she responded.

That was an understatement. Her bathroom was not put back together until early-September; we saw the work start in May.

All along, the court has also been monitoring how often the mold comes back. According to the latest quarterly report covering August through October, in 46 percent of cases surveyed the mold returned.

NY1 sat down with a top official at the housing authority, Deborah Goddard, Friday to discuss all of these issues.

Reporter: The day-to-day operations — Ponce and Clarke [two former NYCHA officials] were in charge of that?

Goddard: To the best of my knowledge.

Reporter: Do you think they did a good enough job to address the mold situation?

Goddard: That hasn't been the focus of how I do my job, and quite frankly I would never be the right person to say that they didn't do their job correctly.

The official NY1 spoke to heads up major projects. [Goddard] touted a new pilot program that the housing authority started last year to tackle mold, and she discussed the construction of new roofs for some buildings.

[Goddard] claimed NYCHA is on the right track. "A lot of work gone into what the best way is to do this, a lot of work with the special master," the official said. "And like I said, I think we are moving forward in the right vein."

 

Mold Problem Got Worse

Despite Goddard's promises in 2017 and her claims that NYCHA would be implementing new programs, the mold problem continued and got worse.

SEE THE REPORT ON PIX11 BELOW

 

 

By 2019, there were a reported 53,000 cases. 

The issue continued in the New York courts.

However, it was not the only major NYCHA failure for the agency under Goddard's tenure.

 

Failed Heating Systems Impacted 400,000 in 2018

NY1 reported, “It’s been a rough winter for many of the 400,000 residents of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) complexes."

"It was really terrible," resident Ida Singleton said. "We didn't have heat. I mean, everybody in my apartment, plus the kids, was underneath blankets, and coats, and gloves."

Roughly 80 percent of the buildings experienced heat failures because of aging equipment and faulty boilers.

"It's these little things that are going to add up," said Deborah Goddard, the executive vice president of NYCHA's Capital Projects Team. "They have one process that generally takes four weeks; they've cut it down to a week for us. 75 percent, you know, expediting. We really, really appreciate that," reported NY1.

The boiler failure was the last straw and sparked Cuomo to threaten a state takeover of NYCHA.

 

Goddard Blamed Advocates

In 2019, before Goddard left NYCHA, she spoke on a panel on aging infrastructure at City & State’s Rebuilding NY conference at Baruch College. On a separate issue, she made news again for criticizing "advocates."

According to a report in City & State NY, she criticized housing advocates.

“We’ve had some advocates who have their own agenda and they are instilling fear,” Goddard said of the projects’ opponents. “I think there is some genuine misunderstanding. I also think there are some advocates who are instilling the misunderstanding. And it’s not fair to our residents to play along that way.”

Goddard refused to answer questions about her tenure in New York for this article. She must be confirmed by the Rhode Island State Senate.

If approved, Goddard will serve as McKee's fourth head of housing. First was "housing czar" Josh Saal. Then, the agency was reconstituted, and Stefan Pryor was named to head it but resigned in June. Daniel Connors was named to serve in an acting role to head the agency in July.