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“What are elected officials doing to make sure developers are not duping us?”

This quote set the stage for Sunday’s Voices of East New York talk between host Nikki Lucas, who is a 2021 City Council Candidate for East New York and Kristen Hackett, an executive committee member of the Justice For All Coalition. The broader topic centered around the current NYCHA Blueprint Plan, which privatizes NYCHA and how this event reduces tenant’s rights and possibly leads to the displacement of many in the East New York community.

The problems with this arrangement are plenty, and Lucas and Hackett touched on each one on Sunday’s show:

The Illusion of Affordable Housing

Lucas pointed out that NYCHA is the only true affordable housing in New York City but the elected officials are selling them out by allowing NYHCA to be privatized while at the same time creating the illusion that the City’s Housing Connect Affordable Housing Program is working.  Lucas added that the elected officials in East New York are beating their chest about building new affordable housing, but only less than 1/2 of a 1 percent of people actual get in. She makes clear that this is a lottery and she asked viewers “how many of you have ever hit the lottery”?

Lucas also pointed out that elected officials will often wait until the damage is done—i.e., mass displacement—before they act to fight for tenants. She emphasized the importance of local politicians working proactively to advocate for residents. She said the community is tired of fighting from behind on every issue for the past 20 years.

The Disappearance of Tenant Rights

There is currently legislation coming down the pike that would threaten regulations that protect the control tenants have over their apartments. Hackett offered some insight into how this privatization arrangement could take power from current residents and put it into the hands of private financial elites.

She explained that current regulations set up resident councils that allow tenants to have a say in what happens at their homes. The upcoming legislation from NYCHA would do away with this provision by converting the units to Section 8 housing.

NYCHA has already revealed a preview of how they will—or likely will not—seek out residents’ input. Hackett has attended a few town halls about this legislation, and NYCHA officials reportedly told residents during Q&A sessions the following: “We don’t want critiques about this plan, we only want to hear questions about this plan.”

Also, community meetings have been exclusionary as they have only been in English and over Zoom, isolating groups who speak another language and those tenants who don’t have internet access.

NYCHA is looking to close public comment on December 28, 2020, just days before the New Year. Unfortunately, the organization seems to be setting the stage of not making tenant engagement a priority.

“Sounds Like a Hustle”: The Dangers of the NYCHA Blueprint for Change

Again, legislation is being written to establish NYCHA’s Blueprint for Change. Which is a set of three steps marketed as “a set of ideas for improving residents’ homes while protecting their rights.” However, both Hackett and Lucas explore why this plan is anything but positive for East New York tenants.

The Blueprint will create a public trust, which is actually a quasi-private corporation that will be led by a nine-person board. The trust will be used to get Tenant Protection Vouchers (TPVs) to fix the residential spaces’ living conditions. The Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) and Blueprint will cover 60,000 and 110,000 units, respectively.

Nevertheless, while this sounds innocent, Hackett and Lucas detailed why this legislation is dangerous to residents during the show.

First, the public trust board will be made up of mostly financial elites, and only four tenants, two of which are picked by the mayor and the other two selected by NYCHA. Second, the TPVs will be used to likely only make cosmetic repairs on buildings instead of fixing core issues. Third, and most troubling, TPVs will be used by the public trust as collateral for private investments. Kristen Hackett summed up what NYCHA’s true intentions likely are: “This is about converting public housing into tax shelters.”

Tenants Housing is Wrapped Up in Private Deals

The sobering truth that Hackett and Lucas unveiled is that if the public trust defaults on payments for their debts, the City Council cannot intervene with emergency funding to help. The only people who have any say-so over what happens with the public trust are high-level elected officials like the Mayor.

So, local elected officials are virtually powerless in regulating how the trust runs or jumping in to prevent a default scenario. As a result, nonpayment could put the living arrangements of tenants in limbo.

According to Hackett, the tenant’s rights to live in this housing depend on NYCHA making payments. However, there has been no provision made for this possible scenario. Lucas pointed out that, ultimately, a default could lead to private investors taking over the property, which could raise rents and leave residents displaced.

All Hope Isn’t Lost

However, even amidst the negative news, Hackett and Justice For All Coalition are fighting to push legislators to vote “No” on the public trust. She and the organization’s goal is to make a case for public funding, so resident housing isn’t tied to instability brought on by private interests.  NYCHA Blueprint Plan & What We Can do to Stop It

Lucas and Hackett also touched on NYCHA’s choice to push this decision during the COVID-19 pandemic being another way of excluding the voices of East New Yorkers. The health and economic distractions, as well as the technical limitations involved with moving conversations online, revealed how much NYCHA’s intentions could be to move forward without residential involvement.

However, Hackett stressed how important it is for citizens to be involved and informed:

“Tenants have a right to be involved in these decisions about their homes and developments, and the exclusion of tenants in that process is a legal violation.”

Nevertheless, there is also a worry about how local politicians allowed this situation to happen in the first place. Lucas had this to say about the lack of action from elected officials:

“Where have any of these radical leaders been? How do you call yourself a radical and allow this to get to this point?”

Whether the Public Trust moves forward or not will depend on how much resistance legislators see from residents and the elected officials that represent them. Hackett expressed that although City Council members, the Public Advocate and others do not have a vote on this plan, they should be protecting their constituents by standing with them and explaining that they should push the State legislators to vote no to this plan. Hackett went on to call the elected officials cowards for not standing up for their constituents. Lucas went on to say that these same elected officials will be marching with you after you have been evicted or displaced, in an attempt to look like they are fighting for you, when in fact they sat back and knew you would eventually be evicted or displaced.

Either way, viewers were happy that Lucas and Hackett shed light on this growing problem:

“I like to thank you, Ms. Lucas and Ms. Hackett for the wake up of what’s really going on in public housing; thank You, good job!” – Tyrone Champion

“RAD is stoppable! Glad this discussion is being had.” – Rick Echevarría, City Council Candidate, 37th District

To see the discussion in its entirety, and to hear more about Kristen Hackett work with Justice For All, take a look at this week’s Voices of East New York show below.

This article originally appeared on Kings County Politics. and was provided to us as a courtesy. Thanks to Kings County Politics for covering this story and allowing us to use it as we look to educate our readers on RAD and how it is an attempt by private developers to get its hands on the largest portfolio of real estate in New York City, NYCHA.

City Council candidates in both Brooklyn and Manhattan have joined forces to shoot down two programs the city is pursuing to expedite much-needed repairs and pump more money into the cash-strapped New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).

But several elected officials say the programs are much-needed and present opportunities to decentralize NYCHA.

The programs in question include the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, and the city’s Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) version, in NYCHA buildings while some city officials are sticking to their guns in defense of the programs.

RAD is a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) administered program from 2011 that allows for private money and contracts for the development and rehabilitation of public housing.

PACT, launched in 2016, allows NYCHA to “renovate developments using HUD Section 8 conversion programs, including RAD, Tenant Protection Voucher (TPV) funding, and Part 200 disposition, to ensure long-term affordable housing” and leases the land and buildings to private development partners who then conduct the repairs.

The candidates against the programs include Black Lives Matter President Anthony Beckford for District 45, Rodrigo Camarena for District 38, Victoria Cambranes for District 33, Rick Echevarría for District 37, and Marni Halasa for District 3 in Manhattan. All have issued statements that RAD is “a bad deal” for public housing tenants and will lead to the privatization of public housing within apartment buildings.

“Housing has always been an issue, especially those that live in neighborhoods with a good amount of NYCHA developments. The issues of NYCHA are blatantly being ignored, and the agenda by the local administration to privatize NYCHA keeps pushing forward. All it’s doing is displacing more and more people. Especially during COVID,” said Beckford.

Echevarría, who grew up in public housing, said that firstly any major decisions should be halted until the president-elect chooses a new HUD Secretary to replace Ben Carson.

“HUD considers NYCHA to be in a state of default or non-compliance with its contractual obligations, the RAD conversion has nothing to do with that. They are just managerial, ownership transfer of developments. I’m disturbed that [Mayor Bill de] Blasio is expediting these conversions now before a new administration takes office,” said Echevarría.

Echevarría said that the RAD conversions can lead to privatization because it opens up Section 8 subsidies that developers then use for financing which they can’t do in the current model. Developers, said Echevarría, in the private market option could end up prioritizing high-earning Section 8 tenants.

Echevarría said he understands that RAD is a quicker fix to the immediate problem of repairs and renovations but there needs to be a better source of housing for all lower-income households.

“RAD conversions are a shortsighted privatization scheme that would have NYCHA tenants living within construction sites, breathing in all that dust, paint, and whatever else kicks up,” said Cambranes, adding that, “It’s a proven eviction-machine, and while tenants may enjoy new kitchen upgrades, their rights and protections will deteriorate just as their buildings have for so long.”

Many city officials have long supported the implementation of RAD and PACT housing programs.

Last year, the city council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus (BLAC) along with Teamsters Local 237 organized a trip to the Cambridge Housing Authority (CHA) to review the implementation in Massachusetts.

City Councilmember Alicka Ampry-Samuel (D-Brownsville, East Flatbush, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights), who was on that trip and is chair of the Council’s Public Housing Committee, said while there may be some problems with Rad it can also be a worthy solution to NYCHA’s woes.

“There’s not one solution to this huge problem we have and although RAD can be problematic, this is something that [former President Barack] Obama implemented in 2011. And if you say no to RAD, you say no to residents who want it,” said Ampry-Samuel, who also grew up in NYCHA housing.

Ampry-Samuel oversees 27 NYCHA developments in her district, and maintains that surveyed residents want the RAD program. She pointed out that Saratoga Square, at 55 Saratoga Avenue, was one of the Triborough Pilot Project deals.

“I am a big supporter and believer in decentralizing NYCHA, and I think that public housing should be decided locally,” said Ampry-Samuel.

She added that general privatization of public housing is indeed “dangerous” when corporations only care for money and not the people they house. “Residents can be management companies, a non-profit developer is still a private structure,” said Ampry-Samuel about true ownership.

U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Central Brooklyn) said RAD and PACT are last ditch efforts to maintain a public housing program that have been systemically and egregiously underfunded.

“For public housing to work for the people, the federal government needs to be prepared to spend the money to keep homes safe and up to code. Ultimately, the only sustainable solution to our problems remains providing the requisite funding. This is an emergency. We need to pass Rep. [Nydia] Velazquez’s Public Housing Emergency Response Act to close the funding gap or we will continue to toil on these half measures,” said Clarke.

In February, NYCHA finalized its seventh transaction, a $370 million deal, for comprehensive renovations to more than 6,300 Brooklyn resident homes.

NYCHA Chairman and CEO Greg Russ, in a November press release, said “The PACT program is an essential component of the Authority’s long-term vision for delivering better services to our residents. We are especially interested in building relationships with a wider roster of small-scale and large-scale developers, property managers, general contractors, and social service providers to partner with on our forthcoming conversions.”

125 NEWLY CONSTRUCTED UNITS LOCATED AT 405 DUMONT AVENUE IN BROWNSVILLE BROOKLYN (CB #16). NYCHA residents receive a preference for 25% of units.

AVAILABLE UNITS

INCOME LEVEL 1

• Three studios @ $367 monthly rent for incomes ranging from $15,086 to $27,300
• Seven one-bedrooms with a $471 monthly rent for incomes ranging from $18,995 to $30,720
• Five two-bedrooms with a $575 monthly rent for incomes ranging from $23,452 to $36,840
• Three three-bedrooms with a $658 monthly rent for income ranging from $27,223 to $42,300.

INCOME LEVEL 2

• Three affordable studios with a $524 monthly rent for incomes ranging from $20,469 to $36,400
• Seven one-bedrooms with a $667 monthly rent for incomes ranging from $25,715 to $40,960
• Five two-bedrooms with a $810 monthly rent for incomes ranging from $31,509 to $49,120
• Three three-bedrooms with a $929 monthly rent for income ranging from $36,515 to $56,400.

INCOME Level 3

• Three affordable studios with a $680 monthly rent for incomes ranging from $25,818 to $45,500
• Seven one-bedrooms with a $863 monthly rent for incomes ranging from $32,435 to $51,200
• Five two-bedrooms with a $1,045 monthly rent for incomes ranging from $39,566 to $61,400
• Three three-bedrooms with a $1,200 monthly rent for income ranging from $45,806 to $70,500.

INCOME Level 4

• Nine affordable studios with a $837 monthly rent for incomes ranging from $31,200 to $54,600
• 31 one-bedrooms with a $1,058 monthly rent for incomes ranging from $39,120 to $61,440
• 18 two-bedrooms with a $1,280 monthly rent for incomes ranging from $47,623 to $73,680
• 13 three-bedrooms with a $1,472 monthly rent for income ranging from $55,132 to $84,600.

Prospective renters must meet income and household size requirements to apply for these apartments. Applications must be postmarked or submitted online no later than February 1, 2021.

A percentage of units are set aside for:

5% – Mobility
2% – Vision/Hearing

Preference for a percentage of units goes to:

25% – NYCHA Resident
50% – Community Board Member
5% – NYC Employee

APPLY HERE

Please note EastNewYork.com is providing you with the information but we are not involved in any way with the application process.  Click the “Apply Here” link above and follow the instructions to apply.  You must register on the NYC Housing Connects website and then their system will allow you to apply.  Remember this is a LOTTERY system so your chances of landing an “Affordable Apartment” is like hitting the lottery. But as they say, you have to be in it to win it, so we would suggest that you apply.   Good Luck!

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