Testimony: NYCHA 2.0 and PACT/RAD

Oversight Hearing on NYCHA Development: NYCHA 2.0 and PACT/RAD

Before the NYC Council Committee on Public Housing

The Community Service Society (CSS) appreciates the opportunity to testify on these issues. CSS is a non-profit, anti-poverty organization, based in NYC, over 175 years old, that works to improve conditions and opportunities for low-income New Yorkers.

In late 2018, NYCHA launched Plan 2.0 to address its $40 billion capital backlog. It centered on the transfer of 62,000 units—over a third of its housing—to private ownership/management through PACT/RAD conversions, expected to generate $10 to $12 billion for major capital repairs. Last October, NYCHA proposed its Blueprint, calling for state creation of a public benefit corporation—the NYC Public Housing Preservation Trust—which would take over the remaining 110,000 units under a long-term lease, to carry out capital repairs and restore decent living conditions.

CSS supports both NYCHA plans in concept, as sensible ways to address a daunting capital backlog with no further government assistance in sight, provided that decisions and plans are made with resident involvement and consensus. Whatever the potential policy merits or deficits of these plans, and their potential to address the abysmal conditions residents struggle with daily, it needs to be acknowledged there has been significant resident resistance. Their concerns and objections need to be heard, be taken into account, and fully addressed. To that end, this testimony puts forward several recommendations.

Resident Views on NYCHA Plans

Since 2003, CSS has conducted an annual Unheard Third Survey of Low-Income New Yorkers.¹  Beginning in August 2019, several questions were directed at a random sample of public housing residents. We found that grassroots residents were sharply divided in their views of NYCHA capital generation strategies.² About half were opposed to PACT/RAD conversions, as well as to Mixed-Income Infill, while half supported them. Major reasons for opposition were concerns about privatization under PACT/RAD and fears of gentrification and potential displacement.

From what we understand the views of resident leaders—the Citywide Council of Presidents (CCOP) and others—are more firmly opposed to PACT/RAD conversions, as well as to the pending NYCHA Blueprint proposal. They can and will speak for themselves.  The Committee and NYCHA should respect their views and respond to them.

CSS believes that NYCHA’s “top-down” approach to plans for the restoration of its developments is a major obstacle to achieving greater consensus with resident communities. Despite differences on policy issues, at the core the major problem is one of process.  

Strengthening Resident Roles in the NYCHA Planning Process

Stepped-up PACT/RAD conversion plans and the proposed Blueprint represent major changes in the way our public housing is owned, managed, funded, and restored. Whatever their benefits, they represent potentially disruptive shifts for residents:

1. their relationships to NYCHA and a changing cast of owners and property managers;
2. the need for more intensive resident engagement in preservation decisions;
3. potential abridgement of current resident rights and protections;
4. potential changes in the structure and functioning of resident organizations;
5. shifts in the resident culture: the way residents identify themselves and relate to each other citywide, as NYCHA developments are increasingly divided into PACT/RAD conversions, Preservation Trust conversions, and remaining conventional developments.  

To address the policy issues involved and achieve consensus on preservation strategies, there need to be changes in NYCHA process, in how it deliberates and decides on plans, and the degree to which residents are meaningfully engaged in the process. We would forward several recommendations:

More Collaborative Planning from the Start

Under HUD 964 Tenant Participation regulations, resident leaders are entitled to a seat at the table when the authority is deliberating and deciding on policy.  At present, resident leaders may receive advance briefings and webinars, but by then NYCHA plans are largely formulated. Resident leadership were not present in “the room where it happened”, had no voice when options were being weighed and decided. As a result, they have no ownership in NYCHA plans that seem to be imposed on them.  As Danny Barber, CCOP chair, put it, “Residents will not be bullied…”

Ideally, preservation strategies should not go forward without resident consent, as determined by systematic ballot.³ Short of that, NYCHA needs to develop a more collaborative planning process with the communities it targets for restoration.

In New York, the existing Chelsea Working Group is a prime example of a more collaborative model. It was formed in late 2019, in response to resident objections to NYCHA’s plan for Fulton Houses, which included RAD conversion and some demolition. Facilitated by Hester Street, the group includes resident leaders from the three Chelsea developments, community board members, NYCHA, the Mayor’s office, elected officials, and several independent resource organizations, including CSS. Beginning from scratch, weighing all available options, the group underwent a mutual education process, resulting in a community-generated preservation plan which, despite a pause due to the pandemic, is to be released shortly.

Admittedly, this process takes longer than NYCHA’s current top-down approach to preservation planning. But it may be worthwhile as a way to lessen conflict with the community and achieve consensus. This is the kind of precedent-setting, collaborative model NYCHA should be attempting in all its planning.

Independent Technical Assistance

After decades of accelerating deterioration and NYCHA mismanagement of repairs, it should come as no surprise that residents are justifiably angry and distrustful of the authority. As a result, they should not have to rely exclusively on NYCHA for information and technical assistance. Preservation planning is highly technical process, weighing capital generation options, zoning considerations, scoping major repairs, assuring resident protections, and the like. If resident leaders are to be fully engaged in the process, they will need their own independent technical assistance resources.

NYCHA’s recent announcement of the Resident Planning Fund Program is a step in the right direction. It plans to fund independent technical assistance to resident associations engaged in the PACT/RAD conversion process.

The Question of Timing—A Pause in the Process?

The pandemic was a devastating blow to NYCHA residents and other communities of color across the city. After struggling with abysmal conditions for decades, now compounded by the deadly health and economic impacts of the pandemic, resident leaders are under unprecedented stress to protect their communities and provide essential services to vulnerable households. The pandemic has also made it difficult to engage residents in plans, apart from the small proportion who have the digital capacity to participate in virtual meetings. PACT/RAD conversion and the proposed Blueprint are complex mechanisms that would be difficult to explain and understand in the best of times. The question is: Is this the time for stepped-up conversions or consideration of the Blueprint proposal?

It might make sense for NYCHA to press the “pause button” on further conversions and forward movement on the Blueprint for the time being, at least until the pandemic subsides and residents can muster the time and information they need to participate fully in the decision process. In the interim, NYCHA should convene a collaborative working group with key resident leaders to assess from scratch the Blueprint, PACT/RAD plans, against other potential options, and attempt to develop a consensual, comprehensive preservation plan.

NYCHA’s eagerness to move forward rapidly is understandable given a looming $40 billion capital gap that only grows as time passes. But if its plans have a future, one that includes the willing consent of residents, it will have to move at the pace of meaningful resident engagement and trust. 

Thank you.

1. The CSS annual Unheard Third Survey began in 2002 to track the views and experiences of low-income New Yorkers. It is designed and conducted by telephone with the collaboration of Lake Research Partners, a leading national polling organization. The overall margin of error is between 2 and 3 percent.

2. See CSS Report:  NYCHA In Flux: Public Housing Residents Respond, Community Service Society, May 2020.

3. This is now the case in the London boroughs. See: Citizens Housing & Planning Council, Public Housing Revolution: Lessons from London, October, 2019.

Issues Covered