Public Housing Tenants Push Back Against Privatization at Elliott-Chelsea & Fulton Houses
Older residents at the Elliott-Chelsea and Fulton Houses in Manhattan are hoping to raise enough money to mount a legal defense against the planned demolition of their homes. Photos courtesy of Lizette Colón.
By Joe Maniscalco
Last month, elderly residents at NYCHA’s Elliott-Chelsea Houses in Manhattan began receiving troubling notices telling them they have 90-days to vacate their homes. But most aren’t going anywhere. Instead, they’re staying put and fighting back against the massive privatization plan neighbors insist has “literally choked off the voices of the people who are most affected.”
“There has never been a comprehensive vote by the tenants,” local resident and tenants’ rights activist Lydia Andre told Work-Bites this week. “So many of their voices have been drowned out by politicians eager to line up behind this because big real estate is a dominant force in the political discourse [of New York City].”
For at least the last six years, the New York City Housing Authority—in collaboration with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the feds—have been attempting to sidestep maintenance costs at both the Elliott-Chelsea and Fulton Houses through a shrewd financial scheme to hand over the highly valuable public properties to private developers.
These private developers hope to level the existing residential buildings and replace them with six 39-story towers—-and numerous other new buildings which will mostly contain market rate housing.
Staying put: older residents living at the Elliott-Chelsea and Fulton Houses are refusing to abide by NYCHA’s 90-day notice to vacate their homes.
“They are destroying a thriving community—and then they're doing it under false means with a false narrative,” Elliott-Chelsea Tenants Association VP Celines Miranda also told Work-Bites this week. “All the people who are involved in the decision making—they’re all on board. But no one wants to review documents. They make all these claims…the buildings are falling apart…it costs more to rehab them. But no one is requesting to go over the documents and review them to see the proof. Everyone’s just saying yes to everything.”
This week, members of the Save Chelsea community advocacy group urged City Council Member Eric Bottcher [D-3rd District] to quit backing the project, saying in part that a 2023 survey of tenants purportedly reflecting their support for the demolition is totally bogus.
“We do not accept the legitimacy of the 2023 survey by which residents preferred new construction over renovation,” the group wrote in an open letter to their Council Member. “They were not told that the survey would be treated as a binding vote, suppressing participation.”
One of first two buildings slated to be demolished so that Related Companies can start cashing in on new market rate and so-called “affordable” housing units includes the Chelsea Addition on the campus of the Elliott-Chelsea Houses.
Elliott-Chelsea and Fulton Houses tenants opposed to demolition say their voices have continually been ignored—but they will not be silenced.
That building is exclusively reserved for older residents—many in their 70s and 80s—who are now being told they need to be relocated to other parts of the NYCHA development for three or more years before they can move into their new units. HUD, however, has not yet approved the demolition plans.
And many of the elderly residents living in the Chelsea Addition’s 91 apartments are without familial support, in poor health, and subsisting on severely limited means. They feel safe and comfortable in their apartments and do not want to leave.
Andre describes the 1-bedroom units as being “more spacious than average so that they can accommodate things like wheelchairs and walkers.”
“They have also have dedicated elevators,” she said. “The seniors have a safe building with all their peers. They have a community. They have apartments that can accommodate their physical needs—and they are adjacent to the Hudson Guild which makes it possible for them to access all the kinds of services they need. So, this is a special building. It's also the youngest building and there's nothing physically wrong with it.”
Related Companies, by the way, is the same union-busting developer that held the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York to a standoff at Hudson Yards between 2018-2019. Related founder Stephen Ross also owns the Miami Dolphins and has helped raise millions of dollars for Donald Trump.
To halt the demolition before it begins, the Chelsea Public Housing Coalition has launched a new GoFundMe campaign aimed at raising enough money to assembly a legal team and take the fight to court. So far, at the time of this writing, the campaign has attracted 92 donors and raised $19,325—or 26 percent of its overall $75,000 goal.
“We don't have the support of our elected officials, and that's what's frustrating,” Miranda continued. “They're claiming there was ‘resident-led engagement’—but those of us who have been actively involved and speaking up against the demolition they’ve ignored.”
Community Board 4 is expected to address the demolition project at the next Chelsea Land Use Committee meeting on Tuesday, August 19, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The hybrid meeting will be held both virtually and in person at the Hudson Guild Center located at 441 West 26th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues) in Manhattan.
Those interested in attending the meeting can click here for more information and links to both register virtually via Zoom as well as watch the livestream.