Preservation Trust May Be NYCHA’s Best Hope
David R. Jones, The Urban Agenda
A monumental moment arrived this week for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), when tenants at the Nostrand Houses in Brooklyn began voting on whether to become the first development to join the NYC Public Housing Preservation Trust, a state-created public entity that has the power to access more private and public funding for capital repairs.
Tenants will cast ballots over 30 days to decide if Nostrand is transferred to the Trust, which can lease public housing units, transfer them to a more financially stable housing program, and raise funds for repairs while using procurement methods currently unavailable to NYCHA. It represents the best opportunity in years for a new funding stream for repairs of NYCHA’s deteriorating apartments.
I strongly support the Trust, especially given the federal government’s diminished role in public housing. It ensures that these apartments stay publicly owned and keeps intact protections for residents. That’s important, as NYCHA is the only source of affordable dwellings for many of New York City’s low-income and working-poor families.
NYCHA plans to repeat similar votes at developments around the city in the months ahead. At stake may be the very survival of NYCHA, which faces a mounting backlog of capital repairs in virtually its entire approximately 175,000-unit portfolio.
Tenants also have the option to vote for Nostrand to participate in the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) initiative which allows NYCHA to enter into long-term leases with private developers who come in to manage developments and fund repairs with tax credits, mortgages and bonds. In the alternative, tenants could also vote to keep the status quo, traditional Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Section 9 public housing.
When Mayor Eric Adams pushes for more repair funds, he says NYCHA needs an estimated $78.3 billion-worth in 264 developments over the next 20 years. Still, if the repairs are completed now, the total need going forward will be much lower. Indeed, about $38 billion of the total need is already covered in slated conversions and ongoing work.
At a time when huge amounts of new direct-government funding by City Hall, the New York Legislature or the federal government does not appear to be in the cards, the Trust and PACT represent the best chance for repair dollars. In either case, both programs promise residents will continue to pay no more than 30 percent of their income on rent. Under the Trust and Section 9, households cannot be evicted without “good cause” in accordance with HUD regulations and the NYCHA lease. It is unclear if evictions will rise, fall or remain the same under PACT.
Even so, it will require a leap of faith by NYCHA tenants to believe the Trust or PACT will avert the crisis that befalls the housing authority and political headwinds that make some lawmakers gun shy, if not outright hostile, to advocating for more investment in public housing.
There are concerns about the effort to secure new funds for repairs at NYCHA, which is under the watch of a federal monitor. What happens to residents displaced by the renovations? How long will they be displaced? What assurances do they have that they will be returned to the renovated apartments? What happens if NYCHA administrations change? Tenants need clarity on the details.
Then there is the issue of jobs. Will the Trust and PACT deliver? NYCHA repairs is a great opportunity to create work for public housing residents and other low-income workers under a too-often neglected HUD program called Section 3. It requires that 15 percent of the labor budget on NYCHA construction contracts greater than $500,000 be set aside for housing residents, who complete at minimum a 10-hour construction course.
Over the years, underfunding and chronic issues, such as insufficient heating, lead and mold in apartments, created strangulating red tape that made boiler failures and other problems annual affairs. Ultimately, NYCHA is hostage to a paradox: On one hand, it must deliver housing as it did decades ago. But at the same time, the political, economic, engineering and social forces battering NYCHA have never been so complex and perplexing.
NYCHA has only a handful of strong public advocates. Aside from Democratic office-seekers, few elected officials speak in support of NYCHA. No one prominent has stepped forward to own the NYCHA issue. Let’s all agree that courage is a rare commodity in American politics today.
But for more than half-a-million renters in New York City — a city within the city, equivalent to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh or Cleveland — public housing has provided desperately needed affordability at a time of high interest rates, soaring income inequality and the increasingly expensive costs of living and housing in New York City.
The Preservation Trust is the best option for funding repairs of NYCHA’s critical infrastructure. The entire endeavor, however, will succeed or fail on winning the trust of NYCHA’s tenants. They deserve a Section 3 jobs program that allows tenants to work on the construction. And the housing authority must be forthcoming about tenant protections, displacements and how the repairs will truly impact their immediate futures.