NYCHA demolition in Chelsea must stop

Last April, during two hot evenings, more than a hundred residents of Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea filled public audiences to transmit an unequivocal message, by sorrow, the questions and the challenge, which they opposed to the Nycha demolition plan, with only two voices offering lukewarm support. However, Nycha walks in front.

In an astonishing reversal of public promises and community planning, Nycha moves to demolish the 24 buildings on the two Chelsea bonus campuses and replace them with tall towers, without ever putting this redevelopment project on a large scale.

Related companies and its partner belonging to an Essence Development minority received the contract in 2021 for a rehabilitation of $ 366 million. They now manage a demolition and a reconstruction of $ 1.9 billion, without a competitive rearrange process and without significant public supervision.

The plan was never supposed to look like that. In fact, it started with a categorical promise: “No Nycha building existing in Chelsea will be demolished.” It was the first principle stated by the Chelsea working groupA coalition of tenants, elected officials and housing experts met in 2019 to trace a way to follow.

THE 101 pages report has become the foundation of a Request for proposals (RFP) published by Nycha in 2021. The developers were informed: no demolition, no siphoning funds to other sites, and tenants would be full -fledged partners. THE The contract was awarded to And his partner belonging to a petrol minority.

After obtaining the contract, suddenly linked “discovered” more structural problems and at the beginning of 2023, the residents were given a cryptic investigation: “New construction with rezoning for larger buildings in less time”, “new construction in the current zoning for shorter buildings in more time” or “rehabilitation”; The first two meant both a total demolition, but of course, the word has never been used.

Only 29% took the trouble to react, and Nycha has usefully grouped the demolition responses to claim support of 57%, triumphantly marking the entire masquerade as a vote.

The project is based on a fragile financial fantasy. Nycha and related assertions The buildings are out of repair. Yet only two years before the DP, his own Evaluation of physical needs At the cost of complete rehabilitation at $ 366 million.

THE Cost of demolition and reconstruction Now has reached $ 1.9 billion. This represents more than five times the original rehabilitation plan, and more than the NYCHA repair estimate ($ 900 million). And because the project has never been formed, the public has no way of knowing if the price is right – or padded.

The money arises mainly from public sources: subsidies in the HUD section 8, exempt bonds of tax and tax credits on low -income housing (LIHTC). Related will receive $ 115 million in annual HUD-Guaranteed annual rent, while operating costs are set at only $ 30 million, which leaves an annual surplus of $ 85 million. This surplus is intended to serve the debt, but in practice, it gives the developer wide latitude for costs, profits and increases.

And should the link decide that the agreement no longer works for them? They can go away at any time for a penalty of $ 2.5 million. It is not a typo. After having demolished the buildings, moved the tenants and absorbing public subsidies, they could abandon the project for smaller costs than a luxury condo at Hudson Yards.

The tenants, on the other hand, face years, perhaps decades of uncertainty and disturbance linked to construction. Nycha own environmental review Admits that construction will last at least 16 years and will produce impacts of in factor noise on neighboring schools. Toxic soil, shadow lance towers and architectural segregation (with luxury tenants awarded different buildings) – all are cooked in the plan.

Nycha insists that demolition was the only way to collect more money. But under RAD / PACT, the rehabilitated and new units receive the same rental subsidy in section 8 of HUD. The rent flow which secures obligations is the same. No credible financial documentation has been published to show that the demolition unlocks more capital. And yet, this transformation of $ 1.9 billion in social housing was lit-discreetly, bureaucratic and without basic examination that a nest repair could receive.

It is not only bad policy. It is a cynical erasure of the public process – and a warning shot for each community of social housing in New York. If Chelsea’s demolition model becomes the plan for other Nycha campuses, we look at a future in which public land becomes luxury development and the voices of tenants are reconditioned as approval after the fact.

The truth is that the public has never voted for demolition. Related and Nycha simply designed a story that made it inevitable. But we always have a choice: do we accept demolition as fate-or do we demand responsibility, transparency and a housing policy that center people, not profit?

The hole has not yet been dug. And until it is, the fight is not over.

Law-Gisiko is the Democratic District Head of the Assembly District 75, Part A.