NYCHA

March 24, 2017

New renderings revealed for NYCHA’s raised earth Red Hook Houses by KPF

When Superstorm Sandy hit the community of Red Hook, thousands of residents were left without power and basic necessities for over two weeks. The neighborhood’s infrastructure suffered substantial damage, with almost all basement mechanical rooms destroyed. In an effort to rebuild Brooklyn’s largest housing development, Red Hook Houses, post-Sandy, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) commissioned a project by architecture firm Kohn Pederson Fox (KPF). Their “Lily Pad” design includes installing 14 “utility pods” that deliver heat and electricity to each building, as well as creating raised earth mounds to act as a flood barrier (h/t Archpaper).
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NYCHA’s open space development plans move ahead with affordable senior housing in the South Bronx

Rendering of Mill Brook Terrace courtesy of NYCHA

March 15, 2017

NYCHA’s open space development plans move ahead with affordable senior housing in the South Bronx

By Devin Gannon

As part of the New York City Housing Authority’s NextGen initiative--the controversial policy of partnering with private companies to develop housing on open space in existing public housing projects--an affordable senior development is coming to the South Bronx. As reported by NY Yimby, Mill Brook Terrace in Mott Haven will be a nine-story, 169-unit building at 570 East 137th Street and will be set aside for seniors who earn no more than 50 percent of the area media income, or less than $36,250. Designed by Perkins Eastman Architects, the building will include a 9,000-square-foot senior center on the ground floor, which will include a commercial kitchen, community space, activity room and an outdoor garden.
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March 9, 2017

As the Mayor weighs options for loss of public housing funding, Trump considers $6B in HUD cuts

By Dana Schulz

Just two days after newly appointed Secretary of HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) Ben Carson went along with plans to cut federal funding to NYCHA by at least $35 million, the Trump administration is reportedly considering decreasing HUD's total budget by a staggering $6 billion, or 14 percent, according to a leaked budget draft obtained by the Washington Post. Though it's not clear how the cuts will affect NYC specifically, previous estimates said cuts to NYCHA's federal aid could easily balloon to $150 million this year, and Mayor de Blasio was already weighing his options for how to deal with the blow. The Wall Street Journal reports that he said yesterday he plans to put aside city money to help fill the gap, but if the city is "cut on many, many fronts simultaneously," there won't be enough to cover the loss in federal funding.
What happens next?

March 7, 2017

NYCHA’s federal funding cut by $35M

By Dana Schulz

Just a day after Ben Carson's confirmation as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last week, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) penned a letter not only inviting him to tour the city's public housing stock (the largest in the country) but urging him not to support budget cuts that would ultimately affect its 400,000 residents. Roughly $2 billion of NYCHA's total $3.2 billion operating budget comes from HUD funding, which is immediately needed for the thousands of apartments in dire need of repairs. But their worst fears have come true, as the Wall Street Journal confirms that Trump's first budget cuts geared towards the city reduce NYCHA's support by $35 million, the agency's largest decrease in federal aid in five years, and this figure could very well grow to an unprecedented $150 million.
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March 3, 2017

With Ben Carson’s confirmation as HUD Secretary, NYCHA plans next steps

By Dana Schulz

Retired neurosurgeon and failed Republican presidential nominee Dr. Ben Carson is officially the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which will put him in charge of 8,000 federal employees and an agency with a $47 billion budget, tasked with overseeing most of the nation's affordable and public housing, enforcing fair housing laws, and providing low-income persons with mortgage insurance. The senate voted yesterday 58-41 to confirm his appointment; the relative lack of Democratic pushback was surprising considering Carson not only has no political experience, but no apparent knowledge of housing, development, or urban issues. Likely with this in mind, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has already extended an invitation for Carson to come tour the city's housing developments.
What's next for HUD?

UES residents not happy about plan to turn their playground into high-end housing

Google Street View of the Holmes Towers with the playground in question in the foreground

September 19, 2016

UES residents not happy about plan to turn their playground into high-end housing

By Dana Schulz

This past spring, the de Blasio administration revealed plans to lease "empty" NYCHA land--parking lots and grassy areas--for the creation of market-rate housing, which certainly ruffled the feathers of affordable housing advocates. Though the proposal hasn't been set into motion city-wide, it is taking shape at one housing project on the Upper East Side, the Holmes Towers on 92nd to 93rd Streets and 1st to York Avenues. As the Daily News reports, NYCHA recently "described tenant support for the plan to let a developer build 300 units — half market rate, half affordable — where the Holmes playground now sits." But this "tenant stakeholder committee" says they feel very differently.
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489 New Units of Affordable/Elderly Housing to Rise on Land in Brooklyn and the Bronx

Photo via Wiki Commons

May 5, 2016

489 New Units of Affordable/Elderly Housing to Rise on Land in Brooklyn and the Bronx

By Michelle Cohen

The de Blasio administration is expected to announce plans to lease New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) land to build nearly 500 apartments for low-income and elderly tenants in three buildings of up to 16 stories within existing housing projects in Brooklyn and the Bronx, according to the New York Times. The sites, on parking lots and grasslands within the projects, were included in the housing authority's initiative to improve deteriorating public housing, as well as increase the number of new affordable units. More controversial plans are also in the works to add market-rate housing within public housing projects in prime real estate locations.
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Affordable Housing

Over 100,000 Unofficial ‘Ghost Tenants’ May Be Living in NYC Public Housing

Photo via Wiki Commons

March 4, 2016

Over 100,000 Unofficial ‘Ghost Tenants’ May Be Living in NYC Public Housing

By Michelle Cohen

Although 400,000 is the official head count of residents in New York City’s public housing units, estimates say that figure may be much higher, and that 100,000 to 200,000 more people live there off the books, Slate reports. In a way it's hardly news: People live with relatives, friends and roommates while they aren't the primary leaseholders–almost standard fare in a regular rental apartment (though market rate tenants may run afoul of the lease if anyone wanted to make a case). The city's public housing units are over 50 years old and in dire need of updates and repairs, but because the city is becoming ever more unaffordable for anyone on a meager income, the real tally of people who live in these buildings could be as much as 50 percent higher than the official number.
Find out more about NYCHA's shadow population

2,000 NYCHA Apartments Are Vacant Despite 270,000-Name Waiting List

Photo via Wiki Commons

June 25, 2015

2,000 NYCHA Apartments Are Vacant Despite 270,000-Name Waiting List

By Dana Schulz

Photo via Wiki Commons For many New Yorkers, public housing is the only affordable way to live in the city, but despite an ever-growing waiting list, thousands of these homes are sitting empty, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal about an audit of NYCHA by Comptroller Scott Stringer. At a release of the findings yesterday at the Raymond V. Ingersoll Houses in Brooklyn, Stringer said: "Even though 270,000 New Yorkers are on the waiting list for housing, desperate to put a roof above their heads, we found that NYCHA is sitting on over 2,000 apartments they identify as vacant." The audit shows that 1,366 apartments are empty awaiting repairs, and 967 are between tenants.
More audit findings ahead

May 19, 2015

Mayor’s Plan to Revamp the City’s Public Housing Addresses Disrepair and Need for Revenue

By Michelle Cohen

Mayor de Blasio is expected to announce today the rollout of a ten-year plan to improve the city's debt-and-disrepair-riddled public housing. According to the New York Times, plan items include–perhaps most notably–the leasing of land within a number of housing complexes to developers; other items include the transference of some New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) employees (and the $90 million a year it costs the agency to pay them) to other city agencies and increased rents as well as higher parking fees for residents.
Find out how the mayor plans to shore up the city's public housing

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