Seventy-five years after the New York City Housing Authority was founded, the image of public housing—both locally and nationally—remains a topic of major debate among policy makers, politicians, and tenants.
“I don’t think I am the scum of the earth,” NYCHA resident Elizabeth Artis said of how she thinks she is perceived as a tenant of public housing.
Around 30 NYCHA residents attended a roundtable discussion sponsored by the Upper West Side’s Community Board 7 and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where the event was held on Sunday. The discussion, entitled “NYCHA: The Next 75 Years,” provided a forum for debate on ways to recast NYCHA’s image. Popular views of public housing have been of greater concern lately, as more families find themselves at the center of economic crisis and in need of public assistance.
Ethel Velez, executive director of the New York City Public Housing Residents Alliance, said most people falsely assume that “folks don’t pay rent” for public housing, when in reality, “people do pay rent in public housing, especially in New York City.” Velez suggested a change in terminology altogether. “The word public housing has so much negativity attached to it,” she said.
NYCHA Chairman Ricardo Elias Morales argued that “NYCHA is an economic engine,” a fact he said is often overlooked. “We bring an economy into the city, and we are part of the fabric here and across the nation.”
Since the city bought a Lower East Side tenement in 1934 and converted the building into NYCHA’s first public housing complex, the program has been built into North America’s largest public housing authority—currently managing 177,976 apartments in 340 housing developments.
In recent years, though, NYCHA has experienced financial trouble. Its 2008 budget recorded a $171 million deficit, according to the New York City Council’s most recent report.
With NYCHA’s large deficit persisting through a recession that has not yet bottomed out, panelists at the forum took particular interest in how the authority’s debt would affect the public’s perception of it.
NYCHA will receive $423 million in capital funds from the federal stimulus to augment its current capital budget. But in an interview after the event, Morales was not optimistic. “The structural imbalance continues as long as we don’t get subsidies,” he said. NYCHA depends heavily on city and state funds, more so than on federal subsidies.
Panelist Jerrold Nadler, U.S. congressman who represents the Upper West Side and other areas of New York City, highlighted a lack of support that extends beyond financial issues.
“A lot of people are being foreclosed on—worthy, good, working, middle-class people,” Nadler said. “How do we get people to say, ‘alright, we need public assistance?’”
Morales suggested that NYCHA should follow the trend of going green by reducing the carbon footprints of its buildings, and present itself as “not only the paradigm for public housing, but for other cities in terms of energy.”
Rep. Nadler was quick to respond with what he perceives to be harsh economic realities, saying “if we are going to reduce our carbon footprint, it is going to increase substantially the cost of energy,” adding that “if we have to pass it on in terms of rent that’s not good.”
While panelists at the discussion struggled with the issue of image, NYCHA residents continued to face their own problems as the authority’s deficit trickles down, manifesting itself as hardships in their everyday lives.
Helen Rosenthal, chair of CB7, said “the deficit absolutely affects each of the NYCHA residents now. It is discouraging to hear about the long waits for repairs and other basic amenities.”
Liza Torres, who lives in the NYCHA-owned Grant Houses just south of 125th Street, said, “My rent was raised $200 with no explanation. I now have this dispute with them.” Torres, who lives on the 15th floor of her building, also expressed frustration over constantly broken elevators.
At Sunday’s event, Artis expressed frustration over what she described as a convoluted bureaucratic process that tenants must navigate in order to negotiate rent payments. “I am trying to cooperate, and they have this attitude: If you don’t like it, we can throw you out,” she said.
Torres added that even in the Grant Houses, which she considers above average in quality, “there is always that fear of being taken over.”
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