 On Tuesday, October 23, 2007, the Center for New York City Affairs hosted a roundtable discussion entitled, “A Roof over Our Heads: How Will New York Save Its Public Housing?”
Public housing is the city’s primary source of affordable housing and home to more than 400,000 New Yorkers. But the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is in dire financial straits.
This event brought together key public housing stakeholders from the city, state and federal levels to discuss NYCHA’s current fiscal crisis and explore ways to solve it.
Read more background about NYCHA’s fiscal crisis
Read the transcript
The morning’s discussion was covered by several local news outlets, including NY1 Noticias and Brooklyn News 12, in addition to the following articles:
New York Daily News article (October 24, 2007)
New York Daily News op-ed (November 8, 2007)
The New York Sun editorial (October 25, 2007)
The two-hour session was moderated by Errol Louis of the New York Daily News, and participants included Aixa Alemán-Díaz, senior legislative assistant to Congress Member Nydia Velázquez; Douglas Apple, general manager of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA); Nicholas Bloom, co-chair of Interdisciplinary Studies at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury and author of the forthcoming Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century; Gregory Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237; Sean Moss, director of the New York/New Jersey Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); New York City Council Member Rosie Mendez; NYCHA resident and Community Voices Heard leader Agnes Rivera; Joseph Shuldiner, executive director of the City of Yonkers Municipal Housing Authority; and Julia Vitullo-Martin, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
The primary focus of the discussion was funding for the operations and upkeep of public housing developments. NYCHA General Manager Doug Apple explained that federal funding for public housing has decreased since the late 1990s, leaving housing authorities around the country looking for solutions. New York, however, is unique in that it is the largest housing authority in the country and also operates 21 developments without any federal money at all.
The authority’s financial situation is made worse by the fact that it continues to pay the city for municipal services, such as police, for which it no longer receives federal funding. In other instances, NYCHA has found itself providing municipal services for which it is not reimbursed by the city. An example, pointed out by City Council Member Rosie Mendez, is that NYCHA took over the operation of several senior centers after September 11 to prevent them from shutting down. The city has not reimbursed NYCHA, nor does it plan to do so.
Joseph Shuldiner, who served as NYCHA’s general manager from 1986 to 1990 and was later assistant secretary for public and Indian housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under President Clinton, reflected on the changes in funding philosophies for public housing, which, he said, started out purely as a real estate venture. In the 1960s and 1970s, public housing started to be seen as a more of a social program, while today it is moving toward an asset-based management model. This means housing authorities now have limited ability to move funds from one property to another, and must fund central office operations with fees collected from the properties. This has created a mismatch in funding priorities for authorities like New York, which provide social supports beyond shelter.
HUD Regional Director Sean Moss explained that the new asset-based management model essentially allows housing authorities the opportunity to manage their assets from an operations level. “If housing authorities had more latitude to manage their real estate or their resources instead of having 300 units, they would be able to create partnerships, or syndicate, or even sell those assets so that more housing could be created,” Moss said.
Doug Apple responded that NYCHA had no intention of selling any of its developments, but sought to “unlock some of their value” through the development of open space on NYCHA property, both for new mixed-income housing and retail space. Joseph Shuldiner added that selling land would not provide a long-term solution to the fiscal problems NYCHA is facing because that money would quickly be used up within the given fiscal year. Julia Vitullo-Martin of the Manhattan Institute argued that because NYCHA is unlikely to receive increased federal subsidies, it should be realistic and seriously consider options like selling off some developments. From a business point of view, she said, the smartest thing to do would be to explore opportunities that could bring in the cash the authority needs to stay solvent.
Greg Floyd of Local 237, which represents 8,000 NYCHA employees, expressed concern about NYCHA selling developments and the resulting displacement of residents in a city with a such a severe housing crunch for low- and middle-income people. He added that his membership would be mobilizing to bring attention to the problem. Agnes Rivera, a longtime NYCHA resident, echoed these sentiments, pointing to the potential political influence that 409,000 public housing residents could have on elections. Her remarks also highlighted the misperceptions many have of those living in public housing, and the urgent need for residents to “impose and impress on city and state officials to reinforce funding.”
Many of the panelists agreed upon the importance of passing the federal Public Housing Equal Treatment Act—co-sponsored by Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez—which would federalize New York’s 21 city- and state-funded developments and provide NYCHA with $54 million annually. Other creative solutions, such as using more NYCHA land for retail purposes, were also discussed.
The session provided a clear picture of NYCHA’s current fiscal situation, but ended with a feeling that the surface of the topic had just been scratched, and that a second roundtable—focused specifically on solutions—might well be in order.
This forum was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Milano Foundation and the Sirus Fund. |
