New York City of Shame: Elderly Public Housing Residents in Chelsea Ordered to Move Out
Elderly Chelsea Addition tenants being forced out of their apartments met at a local park on Friday to discuss what to do next.
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By Joe Maniscalco
Last Saturday, roughly 15 to 20 Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea [FEC] public housing tenants fighting the impending destruction of their homes intercepted Council Member Erik Bottcher outside a Manhattan deli at W. 26th Street and 9th Avenue demanding a meeting with him and challenging his support of the demolition plan Community Board 4 has already rejected.
They got the meeting with him that afternoon—but didn’t like what they heard.
According to Midtown South Community Council President John Mudd, who was also at the Sept. 20 meeting, Council Member Bottcher listened to the elderly FEC tenants express their opposition to the demolition plan “with no filters or anyone to run interference” for about 45 minutes.
“The seniors were able to tell him unequivocally—they want to keep their homes and communities intact,” Mudd told Work-Bites. “They spoke about how they've been pressured to move and threatened with eviction.”
In the end, however, Mudd says Councilman Bottcher “remained resolute in his support for demolition of people's homes, destruction of neighborhoods, and theft of public land, rather than the health and well being of the residents of Chelsea.”
Watch the video of that meeting below:
The New York City Public Housing Authority [NYCHA] wants to give private developers the green light to bulldoze the FEC buildings and replace them with a slew of market rate luxury apartments and a smattering of so-called "affordable housing” units—all sheathed inside a dense collection of six towering new structures as high as 39-stories tall and other buildings—and set to rise on W. 19th Street between 9th and 10th avenues.
Taking 16 or more years to complete, it’s all part of the way Mayor Eric Adams’s administration says it is “reimagining public housing.”
Distraught elderly FEC residents living in the Chelsea Addition on W 27th Drive have been slated among the first to be kicked out and relocated. They received a fresh round of vacate notices on Sept. 26.
“I’m nervous. Every night I’m not sleeping because I just worry,” 80-year-old Yu Story told Work-Bites on Friday.
NYCHA says displaced residents can start returning to new apartments in about four years—if they live that long. One senior resident reportedly died earlier this month shortly after relocating, and neighbors say others elderly FEC residents frightened into moving have also run into trouble and have been hospitalized.
The senior citizens living in the Chelsea Addition building have received notices from the NYC Housing Authority telling them, “You are required to move out by October 25, 2025. You may choose to move sooner.”
Chelsea Addition tenants opposed to the proposed demolition of their apartments feel safe in the building. They fought hard to gain entry in the space, spending five or more years on waitlists before being admitted—the last thing they want at this stage of their lives, they say, is to be shoved back into apartments where they no longer feel secure.
“This building is so safe,” 78-year-old retired housekeeper Diana Chew told Work-Bites on Friday. “I’m so comfortable—I’m so happy because this building is like a big family. Everybody sticks together.”
Elliott-Chelsea Tenants Association leader Renee Keitt has lived in the FEC Houses her entire life and says what’s really behind the pressure campaign on the elderly Chelsea Addition residents has everything to do with the big-money interests behind the massive Hudson Yards development being intent on supplanting another existing community.
“We’re saying if you don’t want to leave you don’t have to leave,” Keitt told Work-Bites. “This remains a proposal even though everyone acts like a done deal—it is not a done deal. We have 950 signatures against this.”
Community Board 4’s full membership also voted down the FEC demotion plan earlier this month after hearing sustained and extensive testimony from tenants vehemently opposed to the proposed scheme.
Eighty-year-old Yu Story [r] and her Chelsea Addition neighbors feel safe and secure in their building and do not want to relocate.
The modest Chelsea Addition apartment Story has shared with her husband over the last five years is warm and inviting—and not at all an example of the dilapidated spaces NYCHA claims are too costly to repair.
"No one has shown us—even though we’ve asked so many people—what is wrong with the buildings,” Keitt continued. “Show us the physical needs assessment made by Related/Essence that brought the [redevelopment] amount to $1.44 billion and how it is now $1.9 billion. They previously stated that it would be cheaper to demolish because renovation would cost too much. Now, we find out it’s all a lie.”
FEC tenants meeting with Council Member Bottcher last weekend attempted to impress upon him that there are, indeed, alternatives to demolition and reconstruction.
“We all know that this is simply a plan which is totally wrong,” tenant advocate Lizette Colón told Work-Bites following that discussion. “Just stop it now—postpone the October 26 deadline. Look for the available alternatives. Related has so much already. They don’t need more deals. Allow working people in Chelsea and throughout the various public housing sites to have their fair part—simply invest in rehabilitation—not demolition. Basta de abuso!
Work-Bites has made numerous unsuccessful attempts to reach Council Member Bottcher for comment on this story.
Last weekend’s showdown outside the deli on W. 26th Street and 9th Avenue came a week after roughly 50 FEC tenants opposed to the demolition plan marched onto the council member’s residence on W. 24th street.
FEC public housing tenants challenging the demolition plan have started a GoFundMe campaign to help cover legal costs and court fees. At the time of this writing the GoFundMe has reached 35% of its $75,000 goal.