Read Part 1 of this series: Does NYCHA’s Development Plan Vindicate John Rhea?
The former NYCHA chairman was vilified for his plan to develop housing-authority land. Now that the de Blasio administration has issued its own infill plan, is it time for another look at Rhea’s reign?
The move comes at a critical time for the country’s largest and oldest public housing authority.
City Limits’ exclusive interview with the authority’s chairwoman
NYCHA says an extensive visioning process among residents shaped a plan to build new housing developments in the Bronx and Brooklyn. But Tenant Association leaders feel their communities’ feelings weren’t taken seriously.
A group of NYCHA residents and advocates say the mayor has been slow to address NYCHA’s problems and want the authority’s chairwoman ousted so the mayor can run the authority personally. But others leapt to chair Shola Olatoye’s defense.
From 2007 through 2014, nearly 5,000 people were “permanently excluded” from NYCHA because of an arrest—not necessarily a conviction—on or near NYCHA property.
Facing a growing fiscal crisis and crumbling infrastructure, City Hall has called for building affordable housing—and, in some cases, market-rate apartments—on Housing Authority land as part of a broad strategy to save the system that houses 400,000 New Yorkers.
The Housing Authority’s Tenant Associations are supposed to rally residents to fight for their interests. But while some leaders (like Jonathan Gardenhire, above, the vice president of Smith Houses’ TA) have had success, a lack of training, resources and tenant interest have hamstrung most.
The housing authority ranks buildings’ repair needs on a scale of 1 to 5. Five is the worst—and it applies to fully a quarter of NYCHA’s buildings.
When NYCHA’s chair met with residents there were questions about failing radiators, missing kitchen sinks … and whether, a year into his administration, Mayor de Blasio is accountable for NYCHA’s maintenance woes?
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