Residents of NYCHA’s Elliott-Chelsea and Fulton Houses need to keep up the pressure against the housing authority’s plan to demolish and replace the buildings, several hundred people stressed during a demonstration at Fulton on Saturday, March 14.
The plan by NYCHA, The Related Companies, and Essence Development would destroy all 2,056 apartments on the two campuses and build new homes. There would be a mix of market-rate and affordable housing, but the city says “authorized tenants” would have a right to new apartments.
Traditional Section 9 leases, in which tenants pay rent directly to NYCHA, would be replaced by Section 8 leases, and the partners would manage the new buildings. The plan’s supporters say the buildings are so deteriorated that repair would be too difficult. Obviously, the demonstrators don’t buy these arguments.
In late March, several weeks after the rally, a panel of appellate judges, ruling on an earlier case, issued a temporary restraining order against the plan. The plan is on hold, at least until mid-May. But that doesn’t mean the tenants are giving up the fight.
The rally, at Fulton Houses, was sponsored by FEC Tenants Against Demolition. The majority of protesters were project tenants. Also represented were other Chelsea residents, civic leaders, political candidates, lawyers supporting the tenants, and members of radical groups.
Tenants described periods without heat or hot water, mold, elevators not working, phone calls and visits from people telling them that they’d better move out voluntarily before they’re forced to move, and more. They slammed the area’s current elected officials who signed off on the plan. A poster displayed at the rally named the “List of Pro-Urban Genocide Democrats,” topped by U.S. Rep Jerrold Nadler and Assemblymember Tony Simone.
They also panned Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s lack of support for the tenant-led movement. “That’s what we think of you!” said one woman as she ground a flyer for Mamdani under her foot, to applause.
On the other hand, wild applause accompanied any mention of Layla Law-Gisiko, candidate for City Council, who has vowed to stop the demolition “on day one.” “Layla, Layla, Layla!” they chanted.
Tenants Speak Out
Marquis Jenkins introduced the speakers and revved up enthusiasm. “When we see these buildings, we see homes,” he said, “but there are others who have eyes on these buildings and see dollar signs.” While he acknowledged that conditions in the buildings are bad, he said redevelopment, not demolition, is the way to go.
“If we allow them to demolish the buildings,” he said, “it will be a blueprint for the entire city.”
While responders to an outreach program approved demolition in 2023, Celines Miranda, second vice president of Elliott Chelsea and an organizer of FEC Tenants Against Demolition, said they only represented about 30 percent of the tenants. By contrast, she said, “We have 1,000 signatures against demolition.”
Jonathan Santiago, a Fulton Houses resident, said his building has had heat and hot water only sporadically since last year and that at one point, the garbage chutes were nailed shut. While NYCHA has persuaded all but six families in his building to leave, he said, “We are six standing strong!”
Jackie Lara, a tenant leader who’s lived in Fulton Houses for 22 years, said that rather than tearing down buildings, NYCHA should first do two repairs that she says are relatively inexpensive: Fixing the plumbing and making sure each building has at least one working elevator. From there, more repairs can be made.
“We need to save Section 9!” she said.
Renee Keitt, tenant president at Elliott-Chelsea, then took the mic. Like other speakers, she also railed against Mamdani for his inaction and his seeming support for the Related-Essence plan. ‘I’m talking to you, Mayor Mamdani!” she said. “You need to get out here and speak to the tenants!”
A tenant who spoke in Chinese, identified as Yu Story, received thunderous applause. Yu spoke through an interpreter, but it was her gestures, her rising voice, and her emotional expression that conveyed the message. She is a resident of Chelsea Addition, a high-rise seniors’ building on the Elliott-Chelsea campus whose tenants received 90-day notices to leave back in July.
Several speakers described pressure from HOU (Housing Opportunities Unlimited), a Boston-based “housing and relocation and support services” firm that is working with NYCHA, Related, and Essence. They said HOU has been using heavy-handed tactics to move the demolition plan forward.
Layla and Jack Step Up
Finally, Layla, to cheers, addressed the crowd. She talked about the early days of public housing, when it was envisioned as safe, stable housing for working people and was espoused by people like Eleanor Roosevelt. We need to get back to that original mission, she continued, and need to save Section 9. Supporters of the plan “want you to think that the only hope (for the buildings) is privatization,” but they are wrong, she emphasized.
When the Housing Authority was founded, she added, statutes dictated that it could borrow money and issue bonds, but it could not use its buildings as collateral. That rule is being breached, but “hope is on the horizon.”
She was joined by Jack Schlossberg, a political commentator and the son of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. He is one of almost 10 candidates vying to represent New York’s 12th Congressional District. Showing how much misinformation is out there, he told of an encounter with a neighborhood resident who confronted him, saying that 90 percent of all Chelsea-ites support the demolition plan. Schlossberg was able to convince him otherwise.
Schlossberg added that many of the threatened tenants are seniors. “Do you know how difficult it is for an elderly person to move?” he asked.
Finally, John Mudd of the Midtown South Community Council introduced several lawyers who have been representing the tenants in court proceedings. John Low-Beer, one of the attorneys who obtained the temporary stay, called the demolish-and-replace plan “a scam all the way around.” He ended with the old slogan, “The people united will never be defeated.”
Incidentally, where does Mayor Mamdani stand on the redevelopment plan? An interview in the New York Times on Feb. 18 with Leila Bozorg, his deputy mayor for housing, leaves little doubt. “We would like to see the project move forward so that residents can actually receive brand- new apartments,” she said.
