NYC public housing tenants make last-ditch push to stop demolition in Chelsea

Tenants at a pair of public housing campuses in Chelsea are making a last-ditch push to block the city’s plan to demolish their current homes and replace them with new apartment towers.

A handful of residents from the Chelsea-Elliott Houses and nearby Fulton Houses rallied with supporters outside City Hall Thursday to protest the tear-down plan, as the New York City Housing Authority and two private developers close in on a deal to begin construction and demolition. The proposal to replace the aging apartment buildings and add thousands of additional, privately owned units has support from a number of residents, tenant leaders and top city officials, including Mayor Eric Adams.

About 950 residents of the two campuses responded to a survey asking their preference for the future of the development last spring. A majority chose a rebuilding plan put forth by NYCHA and private developers Essence and Related Companies, which owns nearby Hudson Yards. But opponents say they have compiled more than 900 signatures from residents who oppose the demolition

Essence and Related plan to erect six new public housing towers and move most of the tenants into those buildings before demolishing the existing ones. Tenants in two of the 18 existing buildings would be forced to move into other apartments before returning to newly built complexes. Residents who oppose the plan say they worry they won’t be able to return.

“I’m terribly worried about displacement,” Elliot Houses resident Renee Keitt said.

Keitt cited the experience of tenants displaced for up to 15 years by a 2005 demolition plan at Brooklyn’s Prospect Plaza Houses. But NYCHA — the nation’s largest public housing system — has only rarely torn down buildings as a last resort to address its aging infrastructure.

Elsewhere in the country, public housing tenants displaced by demolition have been handed housing vouchers and forced to search for apartments on the private market.

The Chelsea plan’s supporters say this proposal is different. All tenants will be guaranteed places in the new buildings, and just 6% of households will have to move out of their homes before the new apartments are complete, according to a presentation circulated by the housing agency and developers.

The two campuses slated for demolition are home to around 4,500 tenants in 2,055 apartments — 1,111 at Chelsea-Elliott and 944 at Fulton.

Keitt said she fears the developers involved in the plan are looking to cash in on one of the country’s most expensive ZIP codes. Essence and Related are also seeking approval to erect thousands of lucrative market-rate units on the public housing campus, along with about 900 apartments with rents priced for moderate-income tenants.

“They cannot be trusted,” Keitt said.

Essence CEO Jamar Adams said the proposal has support from residents and pointed to the previous vote.

“We are proud to be a part of this transformational, resident-led plan to provide brand new homes and a high quality of life for hundreds of low-income New Yorkers,” Adams said in a statement.

Related and Essence took over operations at the two campuses through a program that converts NYCHA campuses to private management in 2019. They revived the tear-down plan early last year, after tenants previously rejected a similar proposal in 2021 following an exhaustive community engagement process.

NYCHA initially estimated renovations would cost about $366 million three years ago. But Adams told Gothamist his company assessed the extent of the needed repairs and determined the price tag could equal or outpace a complete rebuild.

NYCHA needs $78 billion for repairs and renovations across its campuses, after years of federal disinvestment and mismanagement, according to the agency’s latest budget estimate. More than 360,000 people live in the city’s 177,000 public housing units, according to NYCHA, though the number of residents not listed on leases is likely far higher.

The housing agency, developers and other supporters of the plan have sought to allay concerns about tenants losing their rights or facing rent hikes in a new complex.

NYCHA spokesperson Michael Horgan said tenants will maintain their existing protections and continue paying 30% of their income toward rent in newly built apartments “free of environmental hazards, serviced by brand new building systems and inclusive of modern amenities and ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] accessibility and resiliency features.”

Public housing residents elsewhere in the city say they are watching what happens at the two Chelsea campuses.

“I’m worried about the precedent that this project will set for all other projects going forward,” said Latisha McNeill, a resident of the Stanley M. Isaac Houses on the Upper East Side who participated in the rally.

“For developments that are in prime or desirable areas, like Chelsea-Elliott … they are selling it to developers, and it’s going to be at the cost of the poor, the working class,” said Lakeesha Taylor, a resident of the neighboring Holmes Towers.

Miguel Acevedo, the tenant association president at the Fulton Houses, said those fears are misguided. Deteriorating conditions are the real threat to NYCHA residents, he said.

“If we wait any longer, [the buildings] are going to end up getting condemned,” he said. “So the sooner we get this done and over with, people are going to have brand new lives, brand new buildings to live in, and won’t have to worry.”

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the name of Renee Keitt’s housing complex.

This story has also been updated to clarify the nature of a survey taken by tenants last spring regarding future development.