Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast. This is your host, Brian Anderson, editor of City Journal.

New York City's government agencies, like many things in the city, receive their fair share of

criticism. The MTA's handling of the subway has drawn a lot of negative attention of light,

for instance. But perhaps no other agency has caused as much controversy and heartbreak

in recent years as the New York City Housing Authority, known as NITHA, the nation's largest

public housing agency. In 2016, federal prosecutors launched an investigation into the environmental

health and safety conditions

at NYCHA properties. Among the horrible things uncovered, city officials dissimulated about lead

paint inspections and trained staff to mislead federal inspectors. Then, during the last few winters,

heating outages had entire apartment complexes

have become a regular story in the news. Any day now, HUD's secretary Ben Carson will announce

his decision as to whether to place NYCHA under federal receivership. Mayor de Blasio, for his

part, has appeared open to new ideas to reform the agency

and to deal between the city and the federal government could still be in the works.

To talk about all of this, we'll be joined on the podcast by a friend of the show, Howard Hussock.

Howard is our vice president of research at the Manhattan Institute and a city journal contributing editor,

and he's an expert on all things public housing, especially in New York.

He was interviewed in our studio by our associate editor, Seth Barron.

Their conversation begins after this.

We hope you enjoy.

Thank you. after this. We hope you enjoy. Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast.

This is your host, Seth Barron, associate editor of City Journal.

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