In Bill de Blasio’s effort to create a more equal city, the housing authority—a successful Big Government program that now faces existential threats—is the ultimate test flight. And Shola Olatoye is its pilot.
Initiatives to develop mixed-income housing on NYCHA land and move a substantial number of apartments from public housing to other programs have some advocates concerned. But they have Ritchie Torres’s support.
The former NYCHA chairman was vilified for his plan to develop housing-authority land. Now that the de Blasio administration has issued its own infill plan, is it time for another look at Rhea’s reign?
The move comes at a critical time for the country’s largest and oldest public housing authority.
NYCHA’s plan to build affordable housing at existing public housing developments has generated skepticism. But an alliance of advocates, resident leaders and elected officials offered qualified support for the proposal.
NYCHA says an extensive visioning process among residents shaped a plan to build new housing developments in the Bronx and Brooklyn. But Tenant Association leaders feel their communities’ feelings weren’t taken seriously.
From 2007 through 2014, nearly 5,000 people were “permanently excluded” from NYCHA because of an arrest—not necessarily a conviction—on or near NYCHA property.
Poor facilities have discouraged NYCHA residents from recycling for years. While some tenants took matters into their own hands and the de Blasio administration promises a better approach, one environmental group is taking steps toward a lawsuit.
Facing a growing fiscal crisis and crumbling infrastructure, City Hall has called for building affordable housing—and, in some cases, market-rate apartments—on Housing Authority land as part of a broad strategy to save the system that houses 400,000 New Yorkers.
The Housing Authority’s Tenant Associations are supposed to rally residents to fight for their interests. But while some leaders (like Jonathan Gardenhire, above, the vice president of Smith Houses’ TA) have had success, a lack of training, resources and tenant interest have hamstrung most.
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