NYCHA rent delinquency rises to 46 percent in fiscal 2026

What happened

NYCHA collected a smaller share of rent in fiscal 2026 than in earlier years, according to the city's Mayor's Management Report. A column in The Real Deal, published October 13, 2026, quotes the report. Cumulative rent collection fell 9 percentage points, from 68.6 percent in fiscal 2025 to 59.8 percent in fiscal 2026, as of June 2026. NYCHA's target was 97.5 percent. Rent delinquency rose from 44.3 percent to 46.0 percent. That is where the headline's 'nearly half' comes from.

The same report gives a second, higher number. When past arrears and rental assistance are left out, the cumulative 12-month collection rate was 84 percent as of June 2026. The columnist calls that low but not disastrous. He says affordable housing providers average 89 percent nationwide and 73 percent in Brooklyn and Queens. The column does not name a source for those benchmarks. It also says collection rates in the mid 90s were not uncommon before the pandemic.

The columnist argues that tenant attitudes and politics, not economics, explain the drop. He points to the cancel-rent movement, eviction moratoriums, a slower housing court and one-shot arrears payments. He also notes that fiscal 2026 began one week after Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary. He quotes Cea Weaver, now director of the Office of Tenant Protection. In a 2021 Reason interview she said landlords do not have 'a god-given right to collect rent.' This summer she told the New York Times that 'nonpayment went up because people are poor.' These are the writer's views and quotes. The Real Deal piece is a column, not a NYCHA statement.