Federal monitor urges patience on NYCHA troubles

BROOKLYN — For the second time in three months, Bart Schwartz - the newly appointed federal monitor charged with overseeing the ailing New York Housing Authority -- essentially told a crowd of frustrated tenants that help is on the way, but they must be patient.

"Next week, I'll be attending a Compstat meeting at the police department," Schwartz said at the Ingersoll Houses Community Center in Downtown Brooklyn. "One of the ideas we want to think about is creating a Compstat for NYCHA developments and to be able to identify what the particular problems are."

Schwartz faced a lot of the same old grievances from tenants and all too familiar assurances from a panel of officials from various agencies, claiming that federal oversight is working and the NYCHA is slowly getting rid of its problems.

The tenants who spoke remain skeptical and as things got somewhat out of hand, felt they had no choice but to speak out of turn because questions had to be submitted in advance, in writing, and were pre-selected.

"They have not turned a corner yet," Red Hook resident Karen Blondel said. "It's really complex, there's a lot of questions that are not being answered and a lot of follow up that's not being done."