NYCHA’s Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses another step closer to demolition, city promises “dignified transition” for residents
Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) announced the next phase in their plans to demo and reconstruct the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses in lower Manhattan, set to begin in 2025.
NYCHA adopted a Master Development Agreement in October 2024 with terms and conditions agreed upon by the community and all entities involved with the demolition. It also details The Bridge Plan, which calls for repairs and quality-of-life improvements for residents while they wait for construction to start.
“All New Yorkers, especially our residents in public housing, deserve to live in safe, high-quality, and dignified housing — and for the first-time ever in city history, we are completely rebuilding existing NYCHA developments through PACT and ensuring that all existing residents will have brand new apartments on their home campuses,” said Adams in a statement. (PACT is the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together program.)
The 18 public housing buildings in Chelsea that collectively make up Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses were built in 1947, 1964, 1965, and 1968, respectively. There was a capital deficit and crumbling infrastructure for years after decades of disinvestment, similar to other developments across the city that were placed under an ongoing federal monitorship by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This led to talks of razing two 36-unit buildings and starting from scratch in 2019.
Under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, the city and NYCHA formally created a working group to discuss converting the two buildings into Section 8 PACT/Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) affordable housing. The intent was to craft a plan that would phase in construction so residents would not be displaced.
Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea resident surveys officially began in 2023. Over a 60-day period, resident association leaders, NYCHA, and the PACT Partner hosted town halls, knocked on doors, canvassed thousands of residents in both developments, and held meetings with residents. About 29% of the total eligible population participated in the surveys and of that, more than half opted for new construction, according to city numbers.
In one meeting last September, NYCHA Tenant Association (TA) Presidents said that it’s “unfortunate” that the demolition was happening and that more resident turnout might have prevented the decision to move forward with the demo. There were also concerns about the shift from Section 9 to Section 8 housing and whether this could lead to a demolition of more NYCHA buildings across the city.
“In regards to the demolition of any public housing that’s happening right now, it’s like a domino: If you do one, the next one comes around,” said Manuel Martinez, TA President at South Jamaica Houses. “And then, you got to remember that this is a private management company proposing this idea and if they’re proposing this idea, then there’s a profit function. When someone else is looking at a profit, promises tend to be broken and expectations are leveraged to them, not to us.”
In 2024, the plans for Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea went through an environmental review process, a round of drafts and revisions, and an additional series of public hearings. NYCHA and the PACT partners said that the first two buildings can be constructed within current zoning regulations. They anticipate construction starting next year.
The master development agreement states that all existing 2,056 apartments at Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea will be replaced with “high-amenity permanently affordable homes.” Other stipulations include in-unit repairs while the replacement buildings are being constructed, mixed-income and mixed-use communities, centering resident voices to guide the overall redevelopment, ensuring a collaborative process, and ensuring that all residents have rights to a new apartment and to return if temporarily relocated. The plan aims to have the vast majority of Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea residents stay in their existing apartments while NYCHA replacement buildings are constructed.
This method of tearing down NYCHA buildings to build new ones has been touted in the past as the more cost-effective approach to preserving affordable housing, but has had mixed results.
After NYCHA tore down 22 decaying tenement buildings on 114th Street in central Harlem in the early 2000s, tenants said they were happy with the results — but “many passed away before the completion.” In the case of the redevelopment of Prospect Plaza, a three-tower complex in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, 200,000 units of public housing were destroyed in 2002 and 300 families moved out before the whole project became too expensive to keep as “affordable” housing. Some residents were successfully relocated.
More details about construction timelines will be shared with residents as plans are finalized, NYCHA said.
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