The city’s controversial plan to build apartments on underutilized New York City Housing Authority land to bolster the agency's bottom line is going ahead whether tenants like it or not, authority Shola Olatoye told residents at a hearing Tuesday.
“This program is moving forward,” Olatoye said in response to a question on whether tenants would be able to refuse infill development. “We believe inaction is unacceptable."
Olatoye’s response was met with jeers from the more than 100 tenants who attended the public hearing on Next Generation NYCHA, which includes plans to lease land on public housing lots to private developers for affordable and market rate housing.
Mayor Bill De Blasio rolled out Next Generation NYCHA last May. The 10-year plan includes shifting some of NYCHA’s costs on to the city and — perhaps most controversially — leasing underutilized NYCHA property to developers, with the ensuing revenue going back to the housing authority.
The de Blasio administration hopes the plan will help close NYCHA’s $17 billion capital funding gap.
The hearing was held in the community center at the Holmes Towers in Yorkville. Holmes is slated to become one of the first NYCHA developments to see new construction, with 50 percent of the apartments going for "affordable" rents and 50 percent renting at market rate.
Residents, many of whom wore t-shirts emblazoned with “Stop NYCHA from pushing out the poor,” gave testimonies in opposition.
Olatoye and her aides also faced intense questioning from City Council members, among them public housing committee Chairman Ritchie Torres, who pressed Olatoye on whether the new private affordable housing would be available to NYCHA residents.
“I’m not hearing an answer to my question,” Torres said. “Answer the question.”
“As I said in my testimony, the average income for the residents here, for NYCHA residents, is about $25,000, that is correct," Olatoye said. "Like most of the residents downtown ...”
“So the answer’s no,” Torres interjected.
Olatoye said that while a percentage of the new apartments would be reserved for NYCHA residents, “affordable” units are restricted to tenants with 60 percent of the area median income, or about $46,000.
Olatoye also remained tight lipped about what other public housing developments would see infill, aside from those already announced: the Holmes Towers, Wyckoff, Mill Brook, Van Dyke, and Ingersoll developments.
Olatoye said 20 to 30 developments will lease land over the course of 10 years and that more sites will be announced later this year.
Over 40 tenants signed up to give testimony and many used their two minutes to criticize NYCHA’s plans.
Sandra Perez, a Holmes Tower resident leader, gave the shortest testimony, but it got straight to the point: “I have two words to say: I’m opposed."