(Reuters) - New York City’s public housing authority on Monday announced a plan to attract private developers to build affordable apartments in its housing projects, a departure from how many cities have dealt with flawed public housing.

The city’s housing authority is the nation’s biggest. The new plan contrasts with the strategy used by a number of other cities, such as Chicago, which have demolished their crumbling projects.

Nearly 420,000 New Yorkers live in public housing complexes, and some are quite dilapidated. There is a backlog of 300,000 repair orders.

“By forming partnerships with developers, we can generate hundreds of millions of dollars,” John Rhea, chairman of the New York City Housing Authority, said at an Association for a Better New York breakfast.