The new head of the city Housing Authority will be paid an unprecedented salary topping $400,000 — more than President Donald Trump, more than Gov. Andrew Cuomo and more than the man who appointed him Tuesday: Mayor Bill de Blasio.
De Blasio announced that he’s picked Gregory Russ, head of the relatively tiny Minneapolis Housing Authority, to run beleaguered NYCHA, the nation’s biggest housing authority.
Russ, who called his devotion to public housing “a calling,” will make roughly a dollar a year for every tenant who lives in NYCHA apartments — many of which are plagued by lead, mold and other woes.
THE CITY first reported plans to appoint Russ, who also previously ran the Cambridge, Mass., housing authority and is a big fan of teaming with private developers to manage public housing.
Late Tuesday, City Hall confirmed that Russ would be paid $402,628 a year — 74% higher than the $231,000 the last permanent NYCHA chairperson, Shola Olatoye, made. By comparison, Cuomo just got a raise that will bring his salary to $250,000 in two years, while de Blasio is paid $258,750. The president makes $400,000.
Russ earned $167,978 at his Minneapolis gig in 2017, according to the StarTribune.
Public Housing is a Calling’
Russ will oversee 175,000 apartments housing some 400,000 tenants. The biggest agency he’s run so far — the Minneapolis Housing Authority — manages fewer than 6,300 apartments. The Cambridge Housing Authority is responsible for 2,700 units.
“Public housing is a calling,” Russ was quoted as saying in the mayor’s news release.
Russ championed an Obama-era program known as Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), in which housing authorities retain ownership of buildings but turn over management to private companies.
The firms must upgrade the buildings and then collect rent from tenants. Rents remain affordable, with help of continued government subsidies.
In Cambridge, Russ converted all 2,700 units to RAD. In Minneapolis, he had just put one development into the program, with plans to expand RAD further.
De Blasio initially shunned RAD, but switched gears last year and fully embraced the program, kicking off an ambitious plan to convert 62,000 NYCHA units.
Some tenant groups in New York have attacked the program, calling it a form of privatization of public apartments, even though ownership of all RAD apartments remains in the public sector.
City taxpayers will foot the bill for Russ’ paycheck with the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, which has agreed to kick in $161,900 annually.
The mayor announced with U.S. Housing Secretary Benjamin Carson in an evening news release after missing two deadlines spelled out in a January deal with the feds.
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