Public Housing Tenants Fighting Demolition Shut Down NYCHA Meeting—Jeer ‘Sellout’ Mayor Mamdani
FEC tenants and their allies fighting the demolition and privatization of New York City public housing rally on Church Street on Sept 23, after effectively shutting down NYCHA’s monthly board meeting. Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
Public housing tenants and their allies staring down the wrecking ball in Chelsea effectively shut down another NYCHA Board Meeting on Wednesday morning in opposition to ongoing city plans to demolish the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea [FEC] Houses on Manhattan’s West Side.
Then they hit the sidewalk outside 90 Church Street minutes later to lambast Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a “scam artist politician” and “sellout” for allowing the demolition to proceed on his watch.
“I don’t know what the deal is,” Chelsea resident and community activist Tito Delgado told supporters, “Mamdani ran on a platform of affordability—yet the only affordable housing left in New York is NYCHA, and he’s in bed with real estate to destroy it.”
FEC tenant Doris Ruffin says NYCHA is going to have to tear down her building with her inside it because she is not leaving.
“Mamdani is not for the working class. He's not for the poor,” De Hostos Apartments resident Mikaela Perez declared. “Not only is he and [Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants Director] Cea Weaver for the demolition of Fulton and Elliot-Chelsea—him and his partners are for the complete destruction of public housing.”
Opponents of the over $1 billion plan to demolish the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses located between Ninth and Tenth avenues and replace them with a towering glass mix of so-called affordable housing units and market rate luxury apartments, had hoped the Mamdani administration would side with them against efforts to open up city land to developers through a public-private scheme known as RAD/PACT.
Eric Adams vigorously supported RAD/PACT, as well as demolishing the FEC Houses, going so far as calling the public-private model the “future of public housing.” That, of course, was before voters made him a 1-term mayor last fall.
Mayor Mamdani, however, wasted no time picking up right where his predecessor left off in Chelsea.
“Mamdani is a sellout,” a woman identified as “Super Storm” Sandy from Brooklyn said. “Guess who just figured it out? Some of his vaunted Democratic Socialist of America. I’m gobsmacked. Can you imagine? His own crew is saying, ‘Now, wait a minute…Mamdani, Cea Weaver, and all your cohorts are doing this outrageous thing? My god, we are so disappointed in you. Why are you demolishing these buildings?’”
Alicia Martinez [l] has lived in the Elliott-Chelsea Houses for nearly 40 years and says the building is strong and solid, needing only maintenance and repair—not demolition.
In reality, Mamdani’s comrades in the NYC-DSA have begun to speak out against the mayor’s very non-socialist positions on ending the 24-hour work day in New York City’s home care industry—as well as his support for the privatization and demolition of the FEC Houses in Chelsea.
“PACT and RAD is going to destroy public housing,” Perez added. “It's an attack that's going to displace Black, Hispanic, and other minorities. It's an attack on workers who work in the projects as well. Tenants and workers have to come together and fight the privatization without scam artist politicians like Mamdani.”
FEC tenants refusing to move despite a months-long campaign of harassment and coercion from NYCHA and its development partners at Related Companies and Essence Development, continue to challenge their displacement in court.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Chelsea public housing tenant Doris Ruffin said on Wednesday. “You’re going to have to knock down my building with me in it because I am not leaving. No demolition.”
Third generation Chelsea resident Chloe Jacobs denounces public money going to private developers who “just want to make billions off of public land—and off the backs of public housing tenants.”
“I feel safe because the building is safe,” FEC tenant Alicia Martinez said. “I’ve been through hurricanes, earthquakes, fires—and my building is still standing. It’s so strong that nothing has happened to it. Why? Because it has a solid foundation and materials, and it is fireproof.
Martinez also said that she fears the towering new buildings NYCHA and its private development partners have slated for Chelsea will be built too quickly and “without good foundations and materials.”
“Please don’t demolish our buildings—they just need repair,” Martinez added.
Opposition to the demolition scheme has been consistently strong and vocal, too. Community Board 4 rejected the plan last year. NYCHA, however, has continued to steamroll ahead despite that opposition, claiming FEC tenants responding to an earlier survey favored the plan.
“For years the public has been led to believe that this was a resident-driven process, that our voices will help determine the future of our homes,” Elliot-Chelsea Tenants Association VP Celines Miranda said on Wednesday. “The truth is demolition is a decision that NYCHA has chosen to pursue. This becomes clear when you see the numbers on NYCHA’s survey where of the 3,388 eligible residents—only 969 participated. And of those who participated only 550 selected new construction and full replacement—the option that would result in the demolition of our existing buildings. The word ‘demolition’ was not even included in the survey.”
With little or no help coming from elected officials, Perez stressed the need for public housing tenants everywhere to join forces and oppose NYCHA’s plan to privatize public housing—not only in Chelsea, but other parts of the city as well.
“We have to come together,” Perez said. “If you're in a union, let your union leaders know about what's going on. If you're in your workplace, organize your coworkers there to come out to these meetings. If you're in another project building, tell your tenants to come out to these meetings. We need to build our coalition—and we need to do it together. If we don't fight back, they'll take it all away from us.”
Efforts to reach both NYCHA and the Mayor’s Office for comment on this story were unsuccessful.