Tenants, allies protest destruction of public housing

Residents of Fulton and Chelsea-Elliott public housing in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York and their neighbors marched and rallied on Nov. 8 to demand there be no demolition of their homes and no evictions. 

The powerful real estate developers who dominate the city and the New York City Housing Authority have been pressuring the thousands of the diverse and multinational tenants to sign new Section 8 leases and move to other warehoused NYCHA apartments to wait out the demolition and construction process — which will take years — and then be moved again.

In an attempt to coerce tenants to leave before holding a mass eviction, the NYCHA has been cutting back on maintenance and otherwise making life miserable for the remaining tenants, whose number may be fewer now as people move. 

Protest organizer Johnnie Stevens told Workers World: “Our next direct action campaign is to set up informational picketing around the two trailers that the contractor has put up on NYCHA property. The contractor, Related Companies, is pressuring tenants to sign away from Section 9, which protects rights of tenants in public housing and their families. Section 8 allows private companies to be the landlord.” For more details on the picket line, see DefendHome.

According to speakers at the open mic at 26th Street near 10th Avenue, the goal of the landlord class is to demolish this public housing and replace it with high-rise apartments where they can squeeze more profits out of new tenants. 

This struggle over saving public housing takes place as the election for New York City mayor showed that millions of people support freezing or lowering rents to make living in the city affordable. Virtually all New Yorkers except those with millionaire incomes are hurt by the high cost of housing.

The nearly 600,000 tenants in all the NYCHA housing in the city include people of all nationalities, about a third of whom are immigrants.

Tenant organizations presented a petition “to stop NYCHA’s unauthorized proposal to demolish four public housing developments in Manhattan — the Fulton, Chelsea-Elliot, Chelsea and Chelsea Addition Houses (a senior development) — and replace them with six privately-operated Project-Based Section 8 buildings for the current public housing residents (approximately 2,000 units), and nine additional private market rate buildings (approximately 2,400 market rate units and 1,000 additional “affordable” rental units that will be income targeted to income ranges that have not been set).

The petition went on to say: “NYCHA’s proposal essentially gives away two-thirds of the land under these four existing public housing developments to build thousands of new luxury apartments on prime Manhattan real estate.”

Besides petitions, the tenants have been organizing rallies, events to educate people on their rights and bringing the case to court. So far they have convinced the local community board to come out against the demolition and re-construction plan, which is still in environmental review. 

In September, one architecture firm pulled out and said it was due to “lack of resident support.”

Feeder marches from the four developments listed above met near Hudson Yards, a large area of high-rise luxury apartments and commercial buildings. Related Companies — the corporation behind the demolition plan — is located there.

Organizing groups include the Chelsea Public Housing Coalition; Coalition to Protect Chinatown and Lower East Side; East River Park Action; Fight NYCHA; Int’l Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 808; Louis A Bertot – Retired ILGWU, ACTWU; and Parents to Improve School Transportation.