Public housing is in ruins. These tenants will have a say in how they can solve this.

The problems facing New York’s aging public housing system have overwhelmed city leaders for decades. Now officials at a Brooklyn project are trying something they’ve never done before: letting residents choose a solution.

Over the past month, people living in the Nostrand Houses in Sheepshead Bay have been voting on how they think the New York City Housing Authority should address leaking pipes, pests and broken elevators, among other pressing problems that are expected. will cost $600 million to repair.

The vote, which ends Thursday, appears to be the first such campaign against any public housing system in America, officials said. They hope it can become a model for how residents can become more involved in difficult but important decisions about their homes.

The stakes are high: New York City’s public housing system, home to more than 360,000 residents, has become a leading example of decline and neglect. Declining federal funding has led to ongoing problems with gas, electricity, mold, lead and more, and NYCHA estimates it will need nearly $80 billion for repairs and renovations over the next twenty years.

One option for residents of the Nostrand Houses is to hire a private manager for the development. Another involves leasing the buildings to a newly created public utility corporation, but retaining NYCHA management. Residents could also vote to maintain the status quo.

Both new proposals could free up millions for renovations. But the introduction of private management was controversial among other developments. And the public benefit corporation’s plan has never been tried in New York.

NYCHA officials have not taken a public position on the proposals and say they hope the process leads to an outcome that people living in Nostrand support.

They are trying to restore trust among residents who are used to mismanagement, corruption and appalling living conditions. The agency hopes to hold votes on other developments; a second is already planned for a small development in the Bronx.

The lawsuit has thrust the housing authority into a new and unusual role: waging a get-out-the-vote campaign. The agency spent 100 days outreaching to residents before the voting period began. It says it has had almost 1,500 conversations with residents at the door and almost 2,000 telephone conversations.

Campaign literature is scattered throughout Nostrand’s 16 buildings and 24 acres, with flyers from NYCHA, unions and advocacy groups stuffed in doors and mailboxes, some containing misinformation.

The agency has set up a makeshift polling place in a worn-out first-floor apartment, where three voting booths line the wall and voters can pick up “I Voted” stickers. Residents can also vote by mail or online.

Lisa Bova-Hiatt, CEO of NYCHA, said the vote marked “the first time nationwide where a public housing resident has the ability to determine their fate.”

Public leaders routinely promise to fix NYCHA’s problems. Yet conditions continue to deteriorate.

Mayor Eric Adams has pushed several developments toward private management under a program known as Permanent affordability commitment togetheror PACT, one of the options Nostrand residents are considering.

Mr. Adams’ administration also lobbied the state to create a public benefit corporation known as the NYCHA Preservation Trust, which would contract with the housing authority to manage individual developments.

Either option would allow NYCHA to tap into another pot of federal funds through the Section 8 program.

In many cases, tenants, fearing the loss of their homes, have resisted changes forced upon them. At Nostrand, they may now at least have some choice, even if the details seem complicated.

“When I read it, it’s just mumbo jumbo,” Camille Sierra, a Nostrand resident, told NYCHA officials who recently knocked on doors to ask residents if they had voted.

Ms. Sierra, 47, has lived in Nostrand for 20 years. She said she has had to deal with mold and crumbling walls.

She was a former phlebotomist and medical assistant who now lives on disability benefits. She said she preferred any option that would allow her children to take over her apartment in the future.

After weighing the officials’ proposals, Ms. Sierra said she planned to vote for the Trust because she believed the new organization could hold NYCHA accountable.

“I’m skeptical,” she said. “I want to be positive about it.”

William Barsky, 68, told officials he had already voted for the Trust.

“I was told that the PACT would end up costing more money,” he said. The officials explained that this would not be allowed.

Housing advocates like Iziah Thompson, a senior policy analyst at the Community Service Society of New York who has criticized NYCHA’s past outreach to renters, said the vote was a sign of progress.

“If people have been looking at what’s been happening across the country in terms of public housing for a couple of decades, this is a very different thing,” he said.

Mr. Barsky has lived in Nostrand since 1976 and said he was hopeful about the possibility of upgrades to his apartment. The last thing he remembered was the new refrigerator he got in 1982.

“My apartment will look nicer,” he said.