whitman-houses-1209.jpgBack in 2004, tenants began getting booted from their apartments at the Ingersoll and Whitman public housing complexes in Fort Greene to make way for a much-needed renovation that was forecast to be complete by this year. In classic New York City Housing Authority style, though, the renovation is far from complete (the finish date has been pushed back to 2012) and the displaced tenants are still, well, displaced. According to an article in today’s New York Times, 923 out of 3,500 units now sit empty, as long as you don’t count the drug dealers and squatters who avail themselves of the free real estate. This is a classic case of administrative mismanagement, said Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol of Brooklyn. It’s really pathetic when you think about how long this has taken and how administratively they could have done it better. Here’s a slice-of-life from the one of the complexes:

At Ingersoll, the windows of a few empty units have been shattered. Teenagers who broke into a vacant unit in the building recently left the door unlocked. One evening, there was a bicycle next to the refrigerator, gang graffiti on the walls and a condom wrapper on the floor. The light in the kitchen still worked.

Pleasant.
2 Brooklyn Complexes With a Ghost-Town Feel [NY Times]
Photo from iluvmesomefreaks


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  1. funny how everybody complains about their tax money going towards public housing, but nobody says shit when the govt “borrows” from social security to fund wars to find one guy in the wilds of afghanistan…and still cant find him…we dont even know if we will get SS by retiring age…and wtf is a FICA anyway? i still dont know and have been working since a senior in high school…i think there’s more legitimate beefs on where my tax money goes….if you want to really point a finger, blame le corbusier and his crappy designs that isolated the poor. take chicago for example, knocked down most of the “tower in the park” style projects and recplaced them with mixed income developments, maybe NYC should do the same? but this “my taxes go to public housing” crap is ridiculous.

  2. Sorry, sometimes all the “I hate the poors” stuff grates on me. Not like, in a “The What” way, but still.

    Posted by: Heather at December 8, 2009 5:35 PM

    So you think being an enabler is “Loving the poor?” Do you feel guilty about your under-payed nanny or home attendant? Give them a raise so they can move out of the projects and get off my back, I don’t want to subsidize them or you.

  3. From the article:

    “The Housing Authority told residents in October 2004 that the renovations were expected to be completed in five years. This past April, officials said the project was instead scheduled for completion in February 2012. The total cost has now reached $248 million, nearly triple the $83 million the agency said it would cost in 2004. The agency is spending more money to renovate the two low-income complexes than a developer recently spent building a $152 million condominium tower nearby known as Toren.”

    So, yeah. It’s okay for someone to profit from these poor people, but god forbid they should actually get a decent place to live out of the deal… because that wouldn’t be fair. Wah, wah.

    Sorry, sometimes all the “I hate the poors” stuff grates on me. Not like, in a “The What” way, but still.

  4. It just must really suck to raise kids in a half-empty building that is supposedly being “renovated,” but is really just half vacant, with all of the issues that come with that. For what it’s worth, the layouts of those projects look pretty nice in terms of public landscaping and green spaces, playgrounds, etc. But vacancy anywhere breeds blight. No clue why you all are so hell-bent on blaming the people who have to live there but can’t fix up or occupy the empty spaces. Why is the city taking so long? Who’s cashing those renovation checks?

  5. Congratulations *rob*,

    After reading Brownstoner for a year plus, and having seen my fair share of idiots who added nothing positive to the content come and go I have finally decided to create an account ONLY so I can block your comments. Now I may be able to enjoy reading the comments without having to see what useless drivel your pea-brain forced your fingers to type. Get a life HATER!

  6. “You’re comparing a loan WITH INTEREST to tax-payer subsidized housing. I don’t think that’s a very fair comparison.”

    Well I do, because MY tax money is paying for Rob’s status as a college graduate, because Rob (by his own admission) declined to re-pay the loan himself. Why should I pay for Rob’s education?

    1.) i dont breed more deadbeat future welfare scrubs
    YET – YOU CAN ALWAYS ADOPT.

    2.) i am a productive (lol) member of societ
    DEBATABLE

    3.) never been committed of a crime
    SO YOU SAY

    4.) i AM paying back my loans, slowly.. im on deferment anyway. welfare scrubs dont pay anything back or contribute to society in any positive way. except for providing people weed i guess
    SEE ABOVE

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