Housing Officials in New York City received final approval from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to spend $108m in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to rehabilitate more than 20,000 affordable public housing units. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and a number of state and local officials from New York made the announcement at Rutgers House in Lower Manhattan, where 721 public housing and Section 8 units will benefit from the funds. In all, there are 21 housing developments that will benefit from the funds. “HUD’s approval of this agreement and the funding the Obama Administration is providing through the Recovery Act will not only help the families who live in these apartments, but will create hundreds of jobs and ensure necessary repairs can take place,” Donovan said in prepared remarks. “This one agreement will benefit roughly the same number of public housing units in New York City as there are in the whole of Chicago’s public housing inventory.” The funding is part of nearly $3bn of Recovery Act funds awarded to 3,400 public housing authorities for capital improvements. All told, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has received $423m of those funds, which will also be used to improve New York City’s public housing. Last month, HUD approved a NYCHA proposal to raise capital by issuing bonds in the private market to help pay for two public housing improvement projects. Citibank (C), as a limited partner in one of the projects, will invest approximately $209m. In addition, the state of New York is providing $42m. Those funds, combined with the Recovery Act allocation, will pay for the rehabilitation of the housing units, which were originally constructed between 1949 and 1978. Write to Austin Kilgore. The author held no relevant investments.