The flip side of New York’s skyline: Crumbling public housing

Although the New York skyline seems to consist only of luxury skyscrapers – pencil towers so exclusive that there is just one apartment to each floor – social housing is also part of the equation and is currently torn between demand and ruin. Through the municipal agency NYCHA, the city has offered reduced rents to low- and moderate-income residents since the 1930s, and currently houses 298,206 people in 152,926 apartments, distributed in 243 residential complexes that are popularly known as “the projects.” That means home to nearly one in 20 New Yorkers, mostly African-Americans and Latinos.

The New York City Economic Development Corporation is the city’s largest landlord, but the strong demand and long waiting lists due to the free rental market’s soaring prices (over $5,000 a month in Manhattan), and the maintenance problems caused by cheap buildings from decades ago, are conspiring to hinder access. Add to that mix some contract-related corruption and the general state of disrepair of these buildings — there was a partial collapse of one in the Bronx — and the outlook is bleak.

The state of many of the buildings given over to social housing — recognizable by their gloomy appearance — is so dire that the agency is considering demolishing them. Demolition and rebuilding is, they say, more affordable than renovation. This is the case with four projects in Chelsea, managed by the city since 1947 and abandoned to their fate. Their condition is so precarious, and the repairs so expensive, that the city plans to pull them down. Unlike other places in the U.S., this would be a first for New York. But there are real estate ambitions to consider: Chelsea is a very attractive area, and the market is adjusting to the possibility of empty plots.

With a budget of $1.2 billion, the plan is to replace the 17 apartment buildings in the Chelsea complex with six skyscrapers, rehousing current residents in them. But, in order to balance the accounts, the city intends to incorporate nine new mixed-rent buildings into the social complex, with a thousand apartments at an average price and 2,400 luxury units at premium prices. The developers, who happen to be one of the most prestigious firms in the city and architects of the great remodeling of Hudson Yards, are rubbing their hands in expectation.

Opposition

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who won the elections promising to make the city affordable for its residents, backs the initiative, even if it means surrendering to the market. But his support has been criticized and local residents and activist groups oppose the demolition, which a judge has put on hold until June in response to one of two lawsuits. The outcome of the dispute could determine the future of a public housing system that provides homes for more people than the total population of Pittsburgh. About 65,000 households receive a voucher that covers 70% of their rent, which prevents them from ending up on the street. Another 5,000 households have been left without the federal aid extended during the Covid pandemic, and their survival hangs in the balance.

Of the city’s 13,000 properties with a price tag of more than $5 million each, and which often sit empty most of the year, the city expects to raise $500 million annually through a new progressive tax based on the price of the property. Peanuts, one might conclude, in the context of the pressing housing crisis in the city of skyscrapers.

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