Two years ago, the cost of performing necessary repairs throughout the crumbling New York City Housing Authority was estimated at $32 billion. A year ago, an independent estimate of NYCHA capital requirements came to over $45 billion. Now, at the end of 2019 the projected costs of repairing and maintaining NYCHA soar to $68.5 billion by 2028, under the authority's bleakest budget scenario.

With about 564,000 New Yorkers living in NYCHA buildings, the authority would need to spend more than $120,000 for every resident.

The worst-case-scenario cost estimate projects a situation in which capital needs rise 8 percent per year and without the de Blasio administration's current fundraising strategy, dubbed NYCHA 2.0, the 2020-2024 plans show.

Under less depressing scenarios, NYCHA says capital needs could still rise to more than $40 billion if capital needs increase 3 percent each year.

arrow How the capital needs could rise. Courtesy of NYCHA

The budget plan also details what the authority's future would look like under a controversial plan to raise cash to meet those needs. The NYCHA 2.0 plan would keep capital needs between $10 billion and $28 billion by 2028.

The budget was presented to NYCHA's board and was approved Wednesday, according to Politico, which first reported the news. NYCHA did not comment on the plans, but provided the presentation. But another NYCHA 2.0 presentation says the amount of capital needs that NYCHA 2.0 can bankroll "depends on the rate of deterioration and construction cost increases."

"No matter the cost, all levels of government (must) allocate the necessary dollars to fund NYCHA's unmet capital needs," Judith Goldiner, an attorney-in-charge for the Civil Law Reform Unit at the Legal Aid Society, told Gothamist in a statement. "600,000 New Yorkers depend on NYCHA each day."

"We can't allow critical public housing to fall further into disrepair," added Goldiner of the Legal Aid Society, which is in a legal battle with NYCHA over rent paybacks to tenants who suffered severe heat and hot water outages last holiday season. "It's morally unconscionable."

Though the future shows a 62 to 75 percent reduction in unmet needs in the next decade under the NYCHA 2.0 plan, the de Blasio administration's strategy has sparked heated debate and protests among tenants whose developments are targeted for change. The funding plan comes as it tries to meet requirements under the federal monitor Bart Schwartz, named to the post in February to act as a watchdog over NYCHA.

Among the fundraising possibilities a part of NYCHA 2.0 include tearing down two buildings at Chelsea's public housing complexes and building three mixed-income buildings to raise money for repairs. Tenants would not have to relocate until brand new buildings at the complex are finished.

De Blasio himself tried to sell the plan to tenants at a town hall Thursday, only to face angry accusations that he's a liar, according to the New York Post. De Blasio noted, "Unless there's a huge infusion of money, we're all screwed, we've got to be honest about this. ... There's no magical money out there."

NYCHA is also planning to convert thousands of units to federally subsidized but privately managed Section 8 homes through the Rental Assistance Demonstration program, which opponents have criticized as privatization of public housing. At Holmes Towers on the Upper East Side, the authority hadplanned to build a mixed-income tower to raise money, but ultimately withdrew the project amid protests and a lawsuit backed by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. And in Fort Greene, an air rights deal is in the works at Ingersoll Houses.

Besides de Blasio's funding plan, one bill from Brooklyn and Lower East Side Rep. Nydia Velazquez calls for $32 billion of the authority's unmet needs to be federally funded, though she's acknowledged it may take another Congress or new presidential administration for it to have any hope of passing.