NYC public housing residents fear privatization of buildings

The NYCHA Warren St. Houses in Brooklyn, where Williams Latimore is afraid he and his family will be evicted. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
His decision to return to his childhood home to care for his ailing mother three years ago could leave Williams Latimore and his two children without a place to live, thanks to management changes at the city’s housing authority.

After his mother died, Latimore, his 10-year-old daughter and his 14-year-old son found themselves living his mother’s Boerum Hill NYCHA apartment even though his name is not on the lease. They now face eviction — even though members of the Latimore family have lived in the building for more than 50 years.

“It’s a very stressful situation,” Latimore said.

The New York City Housing Authority is transferring control of the building on Warren St. to a private company, which Latimore, 53, fears will be less lenient when it comes to the lease.

His predicament is one that many NYCHA tenants fear they’ll face under what Mayor de Blasio has touted as a key tool to saving public housing.

Under the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration program, or RAD, private entities assume control of NYCHA developments, fund upkeep, and turn a profit in exchange.

Critics of RAD say there are downsides. One, they argue, is that private landlords tend to be stricter.

How many NYCHA residents live in buildings without leases is not entirely clear; estimates range from anywhere between 100,000 and 200,000 people.

More than 15,000 NYCHA residents now live in buildings slated for RAD. How many of them don’t have leases is also unclear. But what critics claim is clear is that an exodus of non-lease holding city housing tenants would further strain an already buckling homeless infrastructure.

Councilman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx), who grew up in public housing, said it’s common for people without leases to live in NYCHA apartments.

Council member Ritchie Torres (Angus Mordant/for New York Daily News)

“It’s widespread in public housing,” he said. “Families who are hanging on by a thread have no incentive to increase their rent by reporting every family member.”

The city, he added, has offered very little in the way of reassurance or a plan to account for them as RAD expands.

“I have not heard the city articulate a policy on amnesty, and I don’t know if they could legally,” Torres said.

Granting amnesty to people who aren’t on leases would essentially amount to giving them a pass for illegal behavior.

That puts the city in a tough spot. One NYCHA official said that while the agency does not want to evict people — and thereby increase the city’s homeless population — the city is obligated to collect rent according to the number of people per unit.

NYCHA spokeswoman Barbara Brancaccio noted that every RAD lease deal includes provisions for residents to add household members to the lease before conversions are finalized.

“NYCHA works with Legal Aid to organize ‘lease addition days’ and ensure residents’ rights are protected under the new lease,” she said.

The only RAD conversion fully realized in the city so far was at the Ocean Bay Houses in Far Rockaway. Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Queens), who backed the deal, said the Legal Aid Society met with tenants before it was finalized.

Councilman Donovan Richards (Go Nakamura)

“We wanted to make sure it was as seamless as possible,” he said.

The legal consultations did not stave off evictions for people who were not on a lease, were involved in drug activity, or who were behind in their rent, said Richards.

Those evictions have made critics distrustful of Legal Aid, which gets city, state and federal funding.

“They’re supposed to be an organization that advocates for tenants and the people. What I’ve seen is that they’re pro-privatization,” said Marni Halasa of the anti-RAD Fight For NYCHA group. “They know that RAD is an eviction machine.”

Legal Aid spokesman Redmond Haskins said the group has worked to preserve public housing for decades.

“The city has made a decision to bring RAD to more developments,” he said. “It is our obligation to ensure that residents fully understand these changes.”
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-rad-nycha-de-blasio-privitization-20200126-iszwy43cejf5no7odlr62vd7ry-story.html