Mr. Hernandez and Mr. Apple also said that assuming no new governmental financing became available in coming months, they were planning to eliminate all of the agency’s community-based programs, including 94 community centers and 147 senior centers operated by the agency or the city’s Department for the Aging in public housing.  In addition, scores of programs that serve youth and provide tenants with job training and arts and athletics activities, among other things, would end. The plan, which Mr. Apple and Mr. Hernandez said would save the agency $68 million annually, would shutter all of the community and senior centers in the Housing Authority’s 343 developments. It has already started the process, announcing in February that 19 “underutilized” community centers would close.  “As chairman of the New York City Housing Authority, I am here to tell you today that the future of public housing is at stake,” Mr. Hernandez told council members. He added that because city, state and federal budgets did not include new financing for the agency, “we have no choice but to begin to implement the actions that I have described.”  Mr. Hernandez and Mr. Apple also spoke about continuing efforts to sell or lease parking lots and vacant land for market-rate development.  Council members said they were stunned by the agency’s dire financial situation, and though they vowed to help preserve public housing, a few members expressed disappointment at plans to raise rents and close community and senior centers.  Senior citizens in particular are vulnerable to being relegated “to the dark ages, when we didn’t have any programs at all,” said Councilman James Vacca, of the Bronx, adding, “I hope you know that there’s no one there to fill this gap should this occur.”  The Housing Authority’s operating budget for this year is $2.8 billion. More than half of that money comes from subsidies from HUD.  The annual operational subsidy HUD has given to the Housing Authority has fluctuated in recent years, from $747 million in 2001 to $780 million in 2007.  But the gap between the money the Housing Authority was eligible for and the money it ultimately received has widened.  From 2001 to 2008, the Housing Authority lost a total of $611 million in federal dollars, money it qualified for under a HUD spending formula but did not receive because of shortfalls in Congressional appropriations. Officials say that this year, the loss of that money means that for every federal dollar the agency needs to operate, it gets roughly 82 cents.  One hundred capital projects have been deferred or cut as the agency has used roughly $370 million in capital financing to help balance its budget since 2002, and Mr. Hernandez and Mr. Apple said they will continue to do so. The Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, told Mr. Hernandez and Mr. Apple that she found this practice troubling.  In an interview, Ms. Quinn said that council members want to help the agency stabilize its finances, but that a better long-term plan is needed that draws on city, state and federal governments. “All of us in city government are very troubled about the state of the Housing Authority’s finances,” she said.  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Housing Cuts Are Proposed To Help Close Budget Gap. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Without increased government aid the city would raise rents for some public housing tenants and eliminate many community centers, according to the chairman of the housing authority.