Mayor Bloomberg named John Rhea, a former Wall Street investment banker, to head the city's Housing Authority Wednesday -- an agency hit hard by a recent string of deadly accidents and a ballooning budget deficit.

"I think that the strategic experience in the private sector equips him well to manage NYCHA's two biggest priorities going forward -- securing the authority's finances over the long term and bringing greater accountability," said Bloomberg.

Some City Council members expressed skepticism at the announcement, including Leticia James who released a scathing statement questioning the mayor's appointment of an investment banker when firms are buying affordable housing to convert them into luxury developments.

But Rhea says his professional experience has prepared him to lead a large public agency with a nearly $3 billion budget.

"I have not only managed within large complex organizations in which NYCHA clearly is. I've also managed multi-billion dollar budgets," said Rhea.

NYCHA is the city's biggest landlord, running nearly 350 public housing complexes with more than 400,000 tenants.

Tenants who have been speaking out about chronic maintenance problems in their buildings, particularly its elevators, after a five-year-old boy plunged to his death after crawling out of a stalled elevator at a public housing complex in Brooklyn last August.

In October, another child died in an elevator-related incident, followed by a fire that killed five family members in their apartment at the Robert Fulton Houses in Chelsea later that month.

"We've been seeing problems with basic maintenance, problems with them trying to close community centers and other valuable services," said Judith Goldiner of the Legal Aid Society. "We've been very concerned with the direction that the agency has been going in."

The mayor says Rhea's business acumen will help lead the authority out of its fiscal black hole.

Rhea says he's aware that tenants may be dubious of the Harvard Business School graduate who's spent more time in board rooms than public housing apartments.

"One of the first things I want to do is actually get out and visit many of the NYCHA buildings," said Rhea.

It's expected to be a goodwill tour of sorts for an agency that's recently been in short supply.