OPINION & ORDER The United States of America (the “Government”) moves for approval of a proposed consent decree touted by the parties to bring organizational reform to the New York City Housing Authority (“NYCHA”) and correct its systemic violations of federal health and safety regulations. On September 26, 2018, scores of NYCHA tenants, elected officials, and representatives of community organizations appeared for a fairness hearing to assist this Court in assessing the proposed decree. One after another, they rendered harrowing accounts of the squalid conditions in their apartments and the indifference of NYCHA management, called for the firing or prosecution of NYCHA officials, and urged greater tenant participation in the negotiation and enforcement of the proposed consent decree. Two of these community organizations, the City-Wide Council of Presidents and At-Risk Community Services (the “Intervenors”), also filed formal opposition briefs.This human dimension cannot be ignored despite the parties’ attempts to limit the Court to a perfunctory review of the validity and form of the settlement. For decades, Congress has addressed the importance of ensuring that public housing residents live in decent, safe, and sanitary conditions. Congress vested the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) with broad authority and responsibility to monitor the performance of public housing agencies receiving federal funds and to aggressively reform those agencies that misuse them. But the parties’ proposed decree sidelines HUD and displaces the congressional framework for remedying public housing failures with a parallel framework to be managed by the judiciary. And aside from general directives to comply with applicable statutes and regulations, the proposed decree does not offer any specificity as to NYCHA’s required or enjoined conduct. Rather, it contemplates the future elaboration of the terms of the injunction through the development of performance requirements and plans. These performance requirements and plans are not subject to this Court’s approval, but will be developed by a monitor, approved by the Government, and subject to judicial review only under an arbitrary and capricious standard.Because the record reveals a substantial basis to conclude that this proposed decree is not fair, reasonable, or consistent with the public interest, the Government’s motion to approve the consent decree is denied.BACKGROUNDThis case is about the disastrous human toll resulting from a complete bureaucratic breakdown of the largest public housing agency in the United States. NYCHA’s stated mission is to provide safe, decent, and affordable housing for the 400,000 or more lowand moderate-income New Yorkers who live in approximately 175,000 apartments in 326 housing developments. NYCHA’s reported population alone places it within the fifty most populous cities in the Nation. But NYCHA’s size is paralleled by its organizational disarray in providing any semblance of adequate housing for some of the most vulnerable members of society and its systemic cover-up of a host of fundamental health and safety issues.1 More than two years ago, the Government began investigating NYCHA’s violations of federal health and safety requirements and its deception of federal regulators as to its compliance with those requirements. The breathtaking scope of NYCHA’s deficiencies came into public focus through the accretion of media scrutiny, the high-profile departures of some of NYCHA’s top leadership, and federal and state court class actions by NYCHA’s own tenants to remedy some of the same housing conditions at issue in this action.On June 11, 2018, the Government’s investigation culminated in the filing of a complaint and proposed settlement (the “Complaint” and “Proposed Consent Decree”). The Complaint, which seeks the appointment of a monitor and other injunctive relief, asserts three claims against NYCHA. First, the Government claims that NYCHA substantially defaulted on its covenants and obligations under its “Annual Contributions Contract” with HUD, which incorporates federal lead-paint safety regulations and NYCHA’s obligation under 24 C.F.R. §5.703 to provide “decent, safe, and sanitary housing.” (Compl., ECF No. 11,
268-271 (citing 42 U.S.C. §1437d(j)(3)).) Second, it asserts a claim under the federal Anti-Fraud Injunction Act to enjoin NYCHA’s ongoing or imminent false statements to federal regulators about its housing conditions and its compliance with federal law in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1001. (Compl.
