Adi Talwar
A view of NYCHA's Wagner Houses in East Harlem from the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge.
News, investigations and analysis about the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the nation’s largest public housing system. This series is generously supported by the New York Community Trust (NYCT).
The team, which will have two attorneys and three paralegals, plans to provide legal support for public housing matters, including for tenants who have already converted—or are in the process of converting—to new funding models.
“When Mayor Adams presents his budget Thursday, consider the choices he’s made and the impact on the working class and the services they rely on government to deliver. As a matter of leadership, he’s giving away the store. At some point, we need to begin a conversation finally about who pays what and who subsidizes whom?”
City Limits on Thursday hosted a panel conversation about the plans being pitched to drum up funding for the city’s public housing system. What is RAD/PACT and the new Preservation Trust, how do they differ from traditional Section 9, and what does each option mean for tenants?
This City Limits video delves into the complexities of a vote that will impact Nostrand Houses tenants in the near term, and explores the choices thousands of additional public housing tenants will have to make in the coming years.
Join City Limits’ reporters and a group of panelists at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 9 for a virtual talk about the future of NYCHA, as the housing authority kicks off the first vote for tenants to choose which funding model they want for their development.
Tras un periodo de votación de 30 días que comienza el 8 de noviembre, Nostrand Houses podría ser la primera urbanización de la Autoridad de la Vivienda de la ciudad de Nueva York (NYCHA por sus siglas en inglés) en adherirse a la Fundación para la Preservación de la Vivienda Pública (Preservation Trust), una nueva entidad pública que puede emitir bonos para financiar reparaciones.
Following a 30-day voting period that starts Nov. 8, Nostrand could be the first New York City Housing Authority development to join the Preservation Trust, a new public entity that can issue bonds to fund repairs. Similar votes at other NYCHA campuses are expected to take place next year.
The City Council’s resolution implores the state legislature and HUD to “take strong action and increase NYCHA accountability by auditing the responsiveness of NYCHA managers to tenants,” citing complaints from residents about work orders languishing or getting closed without an actual fix.
There are several key differences between PACT and Hope VI, the now-defunct federal program that facilitated demolition and displacement in Brooklyn decades ago. But, despite contemporary safeguards, advocates say they’ll be keeping a close eye as plans to raze and rebuild the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses move forward.
“They knew it was going to rain Friday,” said Cynthia Tibbs, the tenant association president at NYCHA’s West Side Urban Redevelopment (WSUR) brownstones, where ceilings in three apartments collapsed following the heavy downpour. “This is a NYCHA problem where you don’t make sure your workers have all drains cleared and all leaves out of gutters.”
City Limits uses investigative journalism through the prism of New York City to identify urban problems, examine their causes, explore solutions, and equip communities to take action.
Founded in 1976 in the midst of New York’s fiscal crisis, City Limits exists to inform democracy and equip citizens to create a more just city. The organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by foundation support, ad sponsorship and donations from readers.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
