Despite spending $33 million on a program which goal was to crack down on slumlord owners, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development has failed to improve the living conditions of thousands of tenants.

In 2007 for instance, housing officials named 935 Kelly St. in the Bronx one of New York’s “worst of the worst” and targeted the five-story walkup for major repairs. Four years later, after spending more than $500,000 in renovations and maintenance work the building is back to what it used to be: broken windows, missing door locks and drug dealers frightening neighbors.

At the beginning of the campaign, called “alternative enforcement program”, 400 buildings were on the city’s list, with more than 1,200 apartments. Today, 45% of these buildings are still in the program.