The city will invest $111 million to repair facades at public housing developments in order to remove unsightly sidewalk sheds, some of which have been up for as long as five years, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday. 

The money will help expedite the removal of sheds at 45 buildings in 11 New York City Housing Authority developments across the city, he said at a Wednesday morning news conference. 

De Blasio said that the sheds sometimes take years to remove because of laws that require them while buildings make safety inspections. Before the law, falling bricks and masonry sometimes injured or killed pedestrians. 

Now, however, some buildings keep sheds up for years before beginning legally required repairs, with little oversight from the city. One Upper West Side building recently held a mock 15th anniversary party for its scaffolding. 

“This is a tough problem, it's not an easy one to solve, because of the very stringent requirements, which are law,” de Blasio said. 

De Blasio said the city does sometimes take legal action against building owners who leave sidewalk sheds up for a long period of time. But he said that long-term changes to the city’s maze of sidewalk sheds would need to be made with a new law, and not agency regulations. 

A bill under consideration in City Council would limit sidewalk sheds to just 90-days — well short of the average of more than 280 days the sheds stay up, according to the city.