NYCHA Retiree Could Never Have Imagined the FEC Public Houses ‘Debacle’
New York City retiree Harry Weiner worked as a Housing Assistant at the Elliott-Chelsea Houses during the early 1980’s when despite the overall state of the city, it was a “very desirable place with a low vacancy rate.”
Thanks for reading! If you value this reporting and would like to help keep Work-Bites on the job AND GROWING, please consider becoming a “Work-Bites Builder” today for just $2.50 per month. Work-Bites is a completely independent 501c3 nonprofit news organization dedicated to our readers — and we need your support! Invite friends, family, and co-workers to subscribe to the Work-Bites Wake Up Call!!
By Joe Maniscalco
New York City retiree Harry Weiner spent just over 30 years working for the New York City Housing Authority before retiring back in 2008. After about a decade working out of 250 Broadway at the start of his career, Weiner decided to take a field assignment at the Elliott-Chelsea Houses on W. 26th Street in Manhattan as a Housing Assistant.
Friends and colleagues warned him against making the move to “the projects” and Weiner did initially turn down the assignment when the opportunity first arose before ultimately going ahead and taking the leap.
It was the 1980s and NYCHA public housing had a very nasty reputation for being dangerous. And it was around the same time two NYCHA employees connected to a federal corruption probe into the agency while working at another NYCHA site in Brooklyn were mysteriously shot. One of them survived, the other bled out inside his own garage on Staten Island at the start of 1984—his hands still cuffed behind his back.
Weiner, however, found a completely different environment when he arrived at the Elliott-Chelsea Houses.
“Elliott-Chelsea was a very different type of place,” Weiner, now 72, recently told Work-Bites. “It was safe. It was well-maintained and newer than the other buildings built in the 1960’s. It had very few problems with repairs. It was very desirable with a very low vacancy rate and a great community center, a senior center, art programs, and mental health services.”
FEC tenant advocates tape a cease and desist letter on the door of the HOU office this past week.
All these years later, Weiner says he could never have imagined the “debacle” that has now befallen the place as the City of New York and its partners at Related Companies and Essence Development continue to press ahead with plans to level the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea public housing developments [FEC] and replace the entire west side Manhattan community with a whole new complex of mostly market rate luxury housing with a promised smattering of so-called “affordable housing units.”
Vulnerable elderly residents living at the Chelsea Addition—otherwise known as Elliott-Chelsea’s “senior building”—are being told that they must vacate their W. 27th Drive apartments by Oct. 26. It is one of the first two buildings slated for the bulldozers and wrecking ball.
NYCHA insists the displaced seniors can come back in roughly four years when the proposed new buildings are ready to be occupied. But many fear losing their Section 9 tenants protections and what years of displacement will actually be like. Weiner says that “no relocation will compensate” for depriving elderly Elliott-Chelsea residents immediate access to the aforementioned Hudson Guild Elliott Center still located on W. 26th Street.
Related Companies and Essence development have already stationed mobile offices on the FEC campus for what NYCHA calls “on-site management” and to “offer expanded resident engagement services.” Geotechnical boring—necessary ground site testing preceding any demolition—has reportedly already been completed.
FEC tenants opposed to the demolition plan and the destruction of their existing community are demanding a binding vote on the proposed plan and are in court challenging its progress. Community Board 4 has already voted down the demolition project.
Elderly FEC Public Housing tenants met at a neighborhood park last month after receiving notices from the City telling them they must move out of their apartments by Oct. 26.
“CB4’s role is only advisory, but it says something that the elected officials are defying the board and the overwhelming public testimony of the NYCA residents and the rest of the community,” CB4 Land Use Committee member David Holowka told Work-Bites this week. “Demolition can’t start until the buildings are vacated, and some residents intend to sit tight. It won’t be a good look for the elected if they have to force residents, especially seniors, from their homes.”
This past Friday, FEC tenant advocates attempted to deliver a cease and desist letter to the HOU office located inside the Fulton Houses. A person answering the door refused to accept the letter. They ended up taping it to the office door and leaving.
That effort came after repeated appeals for help from Council Member Eric Bottcher [D-3rd District], Assembly Member Tony Simone [D-75th District], State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal [D, WF-47th District], and retiring Congress Member Jerry Nadler [D-NY]—all fell on deaf ears.
“It seems that Elliott-Chelsea and Addition are in relatively good condition as compared to other NYCHA buildings,” Weiner continued. “The seniors there weren’t given much opportunity to give their input.”
As Weiner further points out, FEC tenants have asked for data comparing the cost of demolition versus the cost of renovation, but that information has never been forthcoming.
Working class tenants fighting back against the plan to demolish NYCHA’s Fulton & Elliott Chelsea Houses marched in this year’s Labor Day Parade in NYC.
Instead he says, “It all seems like a rushed process, and targeting a senior building doesn’t seem like the right priority.”
The whole thing also reminds the NYCHA retirees of the way the City of New York spent more than four years trying to strip municipal retirees like him of their traditional Medicare benefits and push them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance program none of them asked for or wanted.
“It seems the Medicare Advantage decision was a forgone conclusion just as this housing plan in Chelsea is,” Weiner said. “In both cases vulnerable populations are being pushed through a stressful process that upends their lives. If you’re a senior citizen being forced to move you lose your neighborhood…your community center. You can come back—but who knows if they’ll be alive by then.”
Outside developers didn’t pay much attention to the FEC Houses when Weiner was on the job as a Housing Assistant in the early 1980s. There weren’t any high-end restaurants around and the nearby High Line was still a ruin. Drugs and prostitution were looming issues.
“The neighborhood changed a lot after real estate developers started eyeing it,” Weiner adds. “It’s become a for-profit proposition. It will be lucrative for Related Companies just like the Medicare Advantage contract would have been lucrative for the for-profit insurance companies. The local politicos seem to have failed the residents.”
Recent FEC tenant leaflet lampoons Council Member Erik Bottcher’s [l] alliance with Related Companies founder Stephen Ross. [r]
That reality, however, hasn’t stopped FEC tenants opposed to the demolition plan from continuing to fight back.
They will be packing the court later this week on Oct. 15, at 71 Thomas Street [Courtroom 103] beginning at 1 p.m. in a bid to block the scheme from proceeding any further.
They also plan to follow up previous street actions calling out Council Member Bottcher’s failure to represent them with a march to the offices of Related Companies located at 30 Hudson Yards [10th Ave. & 33rd St.] on Friday, Nov. 7. More information on that upcoming march can be found here.
Finally, FEC tenants will talk all about the latest developments in their ongoing fight to save their homes on today’s episode [Oct. 13] of WBAI radio’s Labor and Healthcare Confidential with Marianne Pizzitola beginning at 5 p.m.