Politicians Can't Back Sell-The-Projects Idea
Unsurprisingly, a group of legislators has a serious bone to pick with HUD regional director Sean Moss over his recent comments that selling some public housing developments might help solve New York’s affordable housing crisis. A letter addressed to HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson that was signed by 14 assemblymembers (including Joan Millman and Hakeem Jeffries)…
Unsurprisingly, a group of legislators has a serious bone to pick with HUD regional director Sean Moss over his recent comments that selling some public housing developments might help solve New York’s affordable housing crisis. A letter addressed to HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson that was signed by 14 assemblymembers (including Joan Millman and Hakeem Jeffries) makes the case that selling public housing is in no way a long-term solution for the city’s housing crisis:
At issue is the assertion that mass displacement of residents in one neighborhood, would benefit residents of another. At the very least, this assertion is misguided. The existing NYCHA developments are of much more value, to both the number of individuals which they provide shelter to as well as the diverse communities they help foster, than a short term budget windfall. Likewise, any purchase and/or development of affordable housing, short of new construction of full scale NYCHA developments, would be comparatively wasteful of the suggested sales proceeds and could by no means accommodate the same numbers of residents currently served by existing developments. In short, a sale of NYCHA properties would be a ‘one-shot’ deal, and would offer very few benefits for those in need of public housing extending past the year of the sale.
Full text of the letter on the jump.
HUD Official Speaks the Unspeakable: Selling The Projects [Brownstoner]
Does anyone know the percentage of people in the projects who work? Growing up near LG I distinctly remember folks leaving there in the morning to get on the subway to go to work.
Also, nobody in the projects likes them. They are horrible for children and teens especially.
Many of my friends who grew up in the projects had mothers who went to work every single day. All of these friends are now college-educated professionals. The mother of one of these friends was a nurse, another one was an admin assistant to some big wig at Lincoln Center.
What all of these families had in common was that there was no father. Don’t demonize these folks.
Also, don’t generalize. (I hope I’m not doing that.) Some projects are primarily Hasidic and Latino. I went to some projects in Canarsie that had lots of working-class whites.
9:43 is a typical phony lib
so the only types of people in new york are;
1) “wall street types”, CEO’s
and
2) mimimum age earners with kids who can’t afford books
screw anything in between
go fuck yourself
You better speak Quest!!! Let them know.
I love how so many people assume that only welfare families live in the projects when there are many more working families in them than some of you republican conservative neomorons care to admit. Families who struggle to make ends meet because employers pay them minimum wage, no health insurance or benefits. Tax paying families with kids who are working hard in school and can’t afford books-unlike the big fat cat politicians who eat out every night on your dime, & CEO’s who can afford $6000 shower curtains wile laying off thousands. Oh yeah- get a job? Do you mean the jobs that American employers are shipping to India and China as fast as they can? But I guess if you have money or a high paying job and investment portfolio why should you care? You got yours.
I love listenting to the Wall St. types scream about the projects- look at the statistics. Black on Black crime takes a far greater toll in the projects than on any Gucci wearing, bespoke suited “upper echelon” New Yorker. So how about admitting that you really know nothing about life in the projects beyond news coverage (and we know how balance that is) and your own prejudice.
Dem Lib and Proud of it
It’s amazing how the hardworking middle class is always get shafted. We don’t get support for housing and we don’t get the tax breaks of the rich! Why are all liberal politicians short sighted lemmings? Why can’t something be done with the housing projects like what was done in
Chicago? Create a diverse mix of housing with low and middle class tenants where all own and take care of their homes! The projects are drug and crime infested shitholes that produce less than stellar, uneducated citizens! The model in Chicago works!!!
projects = concentrated institutional poverty, unrealized tax revenue and economic activity, poor urban planning, susidized poverty, fostering crime, drug use and hopelesness…
bascially “impeding upward mobility” like these assholes are accusing HUD of
good lord i hate local politicians
i say we build extensions to each of these pol’s homes and shove a couple of welfare families in them. would make for lovely “diverse” dinner conversation!
I’m not one to think the best of politicians, but I actually think the letter makes some important points. Selling housing projects does seem to be a one shot deal and where will all the displaced residents of housing projects go? I think a lot of the comments here are motivated by self-interest and not at all concerned with issues of affordable housing or what is best in terms of the city as a whole.
I’d be interested to see what residents of housing projects now think of an idea to sell. Something tells me they wouldn’t be too keen on the idea.
“…the diverse communities they help foster”
hahahahaha
fucking pandering idiots