Controversial Demo. Project for Chelsea Public Housing Complex Approved by NYCHA

NYCHA’s board has signed off on a profoundly contested demolition of the Fulton & Chelsea-Elliot Houses, which houses roughly 4,500 people in 2,000 apartments. They are set to be replaced with new high-rises that current residents will supposedly move into upon completion. The project will be estimated to cost around $1.5 billion dollars.

Related Co. and Essence, two private real-estate developers, would erect the six new towers over the course of six years–and would demolish the existing buildings afterwards. They would also add 3,500 apartments to the complex, although 2,400 of which would be market-rate, a departure from the NYCHA standard of providing some low-income housing. The transference to the developers is being made under a program called Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT).

Despite a promise of minimal disruption to residents’ lives, around 120 residents will likely have to move out of the complex before the new buildings are erected. Tenants will reportedly be able to keep their same leases upon being transferred into the completed buildings.

At the October 30 meeting that cemented the plan, NYCHA Board Chair Jamie Rubin said that “it’s taken a long time to get here and it’s going to take a long time to move on,” a reference to the fact that tenants rejected the demolition proposal in 2021.

Nonetheless, Rubin said he believes that “the only way to restore NYCHA to the status that it once had, which is the glory of the United States public housing system, is to reinvest in the buildings at scale.”

NYCHA has been touting a survey that they claim proves tenant approval of the demolition, which is indeed supported by some residents, who ironically point out that the housing agency has left the complex in significant disrepair; boilers need to be replaced, toxic lead paint needs to be remediated, and elevators need fixing.

Miguel Acevedo, president of the Fulton Houses Tenant Association is a supporter of the plan. “I invite anyone who doesn’t live in Fulton: Come stay in Fulton and you’ll see how we’re living, how disgusting it is,” Acevedo told Gothamist recently.

Yet other tenants have been vigorously rejecting the notion that they signed off on the demolition, with some saying that they have been outright duped. Last June, after NYCHA announced that 60 percent of residents had given favorable remarks during the survey, Chelsea News interviewed some Spanish-speaking residents who said they couldn’t understand the English-language survey.

“The people sign without reading and without knowing what the paper says,” 70 year-old Dominican-American resident Maria Moneira said at the time. She said that she believed NYCHA had wanted to renovate the current buildings, rather than eventually demolishing them: “Where are they going to send us? The street?”

The animosity towards the NYCHA survey has also been disputed by a group called Fulton Eliot-Chelsea Tenants Against Demolition, led by Celines Miranda, which recently conducted a survey of their own. The results, Miranda said in a public letter, were strikingly different than the official survey conducted last year.

”We have gathered a substantial number of signatures, totaling 920. This petition is undeniable proof that the majority of Fulton & Elliott-Chelsea residents reject the false narrative that this demolition is ‘resident-driven,’” Miranda wrote. “The truth is, our community is vehemently opposed to NYCHA, Essence, and Related Companies’ plan to erase our homes. These signatures represent the collective voices of residents.”