From the New York Times:
Tearing down public housing has become something of a national trend, except in New York, where the New York City Housing Authority has held onto its stock of aging buildings even as repair bills and tenant complaints mount.
But that may be changing.
NYCHA is set to announce on Wednesday that it is moving forward with a $1.5 billion plan to tear down the Fulton Houses and Elliott-Chelsea Houses in Manhattan and replace them with new high-rise apartments for the residents who live there, after it became clear that replacing the deteriorating buildings would cost about as much as rehabilitating them.
At Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea, more than 2,000 public housing apartments would be replaced. The new apartments would have dishwashers, washers and dryers, and access to rooftop terraces. The plan also calls for the construction of new retail and commercial spaces and 3,500 mixed-income apartments, with around 1,000 restricted to people earning lower incomes and the rest renting at market rates.
It would be only the third tear-down in the agency’s nearly 90-year history, and the first time new, mixed-income buildings would be built on NYCHA land. City officials said they hope to replicate the plan elsewhere as conditions in public housing worsen.
“You’ve never heard of brand new public housing,” said Miguel Acevedo, president of the tenant association at the Fulton Houses who has lived in the development since the 1960s and supports the plan. “It just doesn’t exist. To create this for the next generation is really unbelievable.”
Read the New York Times' article "To Improve Public Housing, New York City Moves to Tear It Down," featuring the New York City Housing Authority.