Politicians, tenant association president split on solution for Fulton Houses
Manhattan politicians doubled down on opposing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plans to demolish and rebuild a public housing complex in Chelsea Thursday, as the tenant association president came out in favor of City Hall’s proposal.
“Based on what we do know, we cannot support the plan in its current form. The largely black and Latino community in Fulton Houses is worth more than the real estate it occupies and forcing the relocation of 72 low income families to build luxury towers is unacceptable,” six elected officials wrote in a letter to Deputy Mayor Vicki Been and New York City Housing Authority Chair Gregory Russ.
Meanwhile Miguel Acevedo, president of the Fulton Houses Tenant Association, told POLITICO the city’s plan is the residents’ best shot at better living conditions.
“I spoke to many of my residents who know that Fulton Houses has been going downhill for decades,” he said. “We’re living in filth, we’re living with broken elevators, we’re living with flooded roofs.”
“Why should we continue to be an eyesore if we have an opportunity to be more beautified?” he added.
A 90-year-old resident who uses a wheelchair and needs assistance breathing was recently stuck in Acevedo’s ground floor office for five hours while mechanics fixed a chronically broken elevator, he said.
That account is echoed throughout the city’s 325 public housing developments, where some 400,000 New Yorkers live in squalor. A 2018 analysis the city conducted concluded the 5-year backlog of repairs requires $31.8 billion.
Without sufficient funds, the city is turning to a federal program that converts public housing to private management, enriching developers who receive rental vouchers and are in turn expected to speed up repairs. Opponents say it is tantamount to privatization of a public resource and puts tenants at risk of eviction.
Acevedo disagrees, and said he spoke to staffers for Rep. Jerry Nadler and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson Thursday to let them know he supports de Blasio’s plan for the site. Both had signed onto the letter to Been and Russ.
“I respect what the elected officials do for us, but they don’t live here. I live here,” he said.
The city wants to demolish and rebuild two of the Fulton complex’s low rises, which house 72 apartments, and erect new apartment buildings on the property for predominantly market-rate renters. Eventually, the entire development would be under the management of a private company, but the city would retain an ownership stake.
Fulton and a nearby development, Chelsea-Elliot Houses, have a combined $344 million in capital needs, according to the city’s estimate.
De Blasio has said no residents would be relocated off campus during the transition — a promise Acevedo said he would insist be put in writing.
“The time has long come to save NYCHA and fix these buildings — our residents deserve nothing less,” mayoral spokesperson Seth Stein said. “Nothing has changed in our approach and we look forward to working with our elected partners to improve conditions at Fulton Houses as soon as possible.”
The plan has stoked opposition among some residents and all elected officials who represent Fulton Houses.
The politicians asked the city to delay its plans to issue a bid soliciting developers, but Been told them she plans to proceed as scheduled and, in public remarks this week, accused those looking to delay of “making a decision to let those buildings fall into more and more disrepair.”
“And at some point they’ll be beyond repair,” she said. “Let’s be honest.”
Johnson on Thursday reiterated his concerns.
“We’re going to continue to see where we can go, but the elected officials are united. We are together in this, and we are not going to be bulldozed,” he said at an unrelated press conference. “We are not trying to throw up stumbling blocks, we are trying to work through this in a community-based way where the tenants are listened to.”