NYCHA Funding Shortfall Could Mean Dark Days for Projects
City Hall News reports that the New York City Housing Authority is looking at a $200 million budget shortfall this year, which some officials say is likely to result in worsening conditions at public housing. You see the conditions they’re living in and the problems they’re going through, says Council Member Rosie Mendez (D-Manhattan), who…
City Hall News reports that the New York City Housing Authority is looking at a $200 million budget shortfall this year, which some officials say is likely to result in worsening conditions at public housing. You see the conditions they’re living in and the problems they’re going through, says Council Member Rosie Mendez (D-Manhattan), who chairs the Council’s Public Housing Committee, and you’re sort of helpless in trying to rectify the situation. Last year NYCHA had a $168 million budget deficit. As federal funding for the projects has dried up, so too have city and state dollars. In recent years NYCHA has laid off thousands of employees and cut hundreds of millions of dollars from its operating budget. Some public housing advocates say that the city uses the projects as a “cash cow,” collecting millions every year for things like police services. Although there have been rumors that some of the city’s public housing stock would be sold off to private developers, Nicholas Dagen Bloom, an assistant professor at the New York Institute of Technology and author of “Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century,” says that’s probably not going to happen. It’s not likely the program will be privatized, he says, but there will be structural changes in the way it operates to reflect current conditions, which is higher costs. The are currently more than 400,000 residents of public housing in the city, and rent averages $320 a month for tenants who earn, on average, $20,000 a year.
The City’s Own Looming Housing Crisis [City Hall]
HUD Official Speaks the Unspeakable: Selling The Projects [Brownstoner]
Politicians Can’t Back Sell-The-Projects Idea [Brownstoner]
Photo by bondidwhat.
5:33, bxgirl, wrote
In my experience, and I own a biz that does some light mfg, used to be in Manhattan, now exiled to LI, the left doesn’t understand mfg. They see it as ‘bad for the environment’ cuz you know, it smells. It generates refuse. They also come into a metal-bending place and see people working noisy, dirty machinery, and before you know it, they want to save all those poor souls who are getting dirty. They want to find out if they’re unionized, what the bennies are, and so on.
Before you know it, it’s just easier and cheaper to get it made somewhere where there are no liberals.
I must say in the SOuth they do understand these things a bit better. When I was in the petrochem biz, and used to spend a lot of time in Houston, you’d get some nasty smell from a refinery, and workers would go ‘umm, smells like money to me’.
And of course mfg can’t compete with other more ‘productive’ uses for real estate, so, nabe after nabe, the buildings get converted into condos.
And then folx want to know why people get stuck in the projects.
5:41, you are obviously young. THe marginal tax rate in this country has been as high as 90%, now it is as low as 15% if you live off investment income (or zero, if you have enuf tax-free munis).
Also, you are paying less in taxes than you would in any other Western society.
Nothing wrong with a fair and low and simple progressive tax structure. But it’s the extremely well off, not working slobs like us making a coupla hundred thou a year that have been getting the lion’s benefit of the tax cuts in recent years.
“You have no idea about how the rest of us live, but hint- it isn’t only about money”
You have now idea how the “rich” live, what they contribute, and what they do – its all based on your tired stereotypes of people who have money, no doubt unchallenged and unexamined by the people you hang out with.
5:41- you may not have noticed but I have nowhere said anything about raising or lowering taxes. I am just pointing out to those folk who seem to think their money makes them better, or more productive and important that in fact without all of us involved and working, this country will be toast. I’m arguing about that feeling of elitist entitlement several poster here seem to have. It’s not criminal to be poor or need help, although you can’t tell based on what some people have said,it’s unfortunate. Nor does being rich mean you really know everything in life about the economy or society (again I point my finger at benson and Polemicist).
But i would like someone to explain to me why with all the tax breaks, and abatements etc., we’re still losing jobs -despite investing and everything else. Because investors don’t just want profits, they want higher and higher profits. And the comes a tipping point where the people you need to buy your product can no longer afford it. Then everyone loses. free market bull aside, nothing operates in a vacuum- nothing and no one.
Those earning over 60K pay more , proportionatley, than those earning 20K, those earning over 150K pay more , proportionatley, than those earning 60K. the biggest tax proportion is paid by those earning salaries with 150-300K income. Your marginal rates increase the more you earn up to the level that covers most earners in the country. Its called “progressive taxation”.
So save us your crap. Those in NYC, NY state, pay the highest proportion of their income in taxes in the country due to hi city and state taxes.
The proportion people pay either side of those figures falls – below because they have lower marginal rates (down to those earning below 20K who, with EIC can actually have taxes) and above because those above make money from investment income which is taxed at a lower rate.
The vast bulk of taxes tho falls on working professionals.
But go ahead, stick to the same party line.
5:22 My wife and I made a combined $140,000 last year. We paid a total of $41,000 Fedreal State and Local taxes (Exclusive of Social Security and Medicare,Insurance, etc) We paid out approximmately 30% of our income just in taxes. Now I hardly consider myself rich, but care to share what “Proportion” of the tax Burden you pay? A person Making $40,000 will pay somewhere around 5K or 6K or around 10% in Taxes. Someone making Under 30K likely has closer to $0 tax liability.
What do you propose is fair? It sure seems to me that my $40K “Contribution” in taxes is way too high and any higher acts a dis-incentive to work harder, further my education and try to earn more.
The tax the rich dribble only acts to destroy wealth creation, eliminate jobs, and penalize those people that innovate, create, and employ. Common sense, and empiracle data, clearly shows that the higher the taxes, the less revenue actually gets collected. This is becuase higher taxes creates a drain on the economy, drives jobs overseas, de-motivates investing, and discourages risk takers and entrepreneurs.
The simple and easy solution is not always the best.
Great post, denton. I grew up in Bronx, racially mixed, projects, as did many of my friends. I appreciated your point about the parking because for all the complaints about people in the projects having cars, public transportation is often not the best, or involves a long. complicated trip to and fro. this is especially true in many parts of the Bronx.
I only have one question- why do you feel the Left is responsible for conspiring with real estate interests and driving jobs out of the country? I don’t see that.
Bxgrl
except we don’t tax the rich until they are poor. And we certainly aren’t throwing money at the poor so they can live like the rich. You need to get a grip on reality here. The richest of “you” pay far too little in taxes proportionately than a single working person- and I know this from experience- as for generating jobs, the greatest amount of jobs are actually generated by small businesses. Perhaps because you richest, in the pursuit of even more money, have sent so many jobs overseas to China. Yet the government, in a panic to stave off a recession desperately threw us “little people” 600$ with the admonition to go spend it, and jump start the economy. What happened to all you generous rich people? Obviously you never stopped spending, but it is far to little to help the economy. No, for that you need us middle class and poor folk to buy your stuff, wait your tables, clean your offices, ship your goods and nursemaid your kids.
And, 4:33, if you read what I said, I said a certain group, not a blanket condemnation of rich people. but since so many of you fell your money entitles you to something, let me also correct you as to the fact that not only do I pay proportionately more of my income in taxes, but i pay for many things that I have no use for- like schools, as I have no children. roads- I have no car. And why should I have my tax money pay for a basketball arena and Ratner’s luxury condos?
May I also point out that if you ever studied the donation patterns in this country, you would find that middle class and, yes, poor people also donate huge amounts of money. for thousands of grass roots charitable organizations, they are the only monies that keep them afloat, and we do so without the expectation of a huge tax write off. So spare me the I have more money than Croesus so I am a better member of society. You have no idea about how the rest of us live, but hint- it isn’t only about money.
While often I find myself philosophically aligned with Benson and Polemicist, in this case I’m more with Montrose.
One mistake that almost every poster has made is to equate the _average_ income of 20k with real income that NYCHA residents make. Of course most posters have little real knowledge of the ‘projects’ or their inhabitants; they get their info from the media. As was pointed out, there are many residents of the PJs that are disabled, or on guvmint assistance, and so essentially have an earned income of zero. It also needs to be pointed out tho that while there is a rent maximum it is low, and no NYCHA resident is forced out due to a high income.
Therefore, there are many NYCHA residents that both work and make a reasonable income. I happen to employ one who makes in the mid forties. He could move out, but he’s quite content to stay put. He, and no doubt many others, value what they see as a genuine sense of community. I’ve employed at least a half dozen other kids from the PJs, and none have expressed a desire to leave. That may make certain types here suggest they have a lack of motivation. On the contrary, they are expressing their economic self-interest by staying in a place where rent is cheap and the services (heat, hot water, etc.,) are really not that bad. A/C, for example, costs $6 per month.
The same economic self-interest is being expressed by the tens of thousands of families who are on the wait list for NYCHA apts.
Obviously, one thing that could be done is to establish an income limit for NYCHA apts, the same way as is being done for rent-stabilized apts. Make the high earners in NYCHA move after two years of earnings above the NYC median income. The problem with that is that it’s important for the poorer residents to see the majority of residents go to work in the morning.
It should also be noted that the NYCHA projects were built as improvements to the ‘slums’ that previously existed. Which they are. And that they were never meant to warehouse the welfare poor, they were meant to house to poorer working classes. Note, the PJs all have parking lots!
I’m not going to let the Left off the hook either, the left deserves some of the blame, for conspiring with real estate interests to essentially drive manufacturing and most unskilled jobs first, out of NYC, and then, out of the country.
Finally, note that in the south, or wherever it seems the grass is greener, you need a car, or two. One of the great things about NYC is that you don’t. Another thing to factor in about ‘going south where it’s cheap’. Maybe in fact, NYCHA residents have already done that math and are smarter than you think.
I grew up right around the corner from Grant Houses and Manhattanville houses in West Harlem. Plenty of my friends in the PJs did well and got out. Plenty still are.