Preserving Affordable Housing
Public-Private Partnerships Provide Critical Repairs and Guarantee Residents Retain Rights
DESPITE THE SWELTERING
Despite the August temperatures, Bronxchester Houses’ Resident Association President Patricia Lamonda was eager to show off the stately basketball court with stadium seating and the manicured shrubs by the Bronxchester Houses’ entrance.
“They worked on everything, from the roof to the lobby to the basement to every square inch of the grounds,” she exclaimed proudly.
Ms. Lamonda, a Bronxchester resident for 33 years, joined NYCHA Chair Shola Olatoye, who hosted a tour for elected officials of NYCHA Section 8 properties in the Bronx and ManPhattan that were upgraded extensively thanks to NYCHA’s recent partnership with community-based developers. This public-private partnership provided $80 million to renovate six Section 8 NYCHA developments and will generate $360 million in revenue over 15 years for NYCHA’s operations and major repair work portfolio-wide. Tour participants included Public Advocate Letitia James; City Council Members Inez Dickens, Vanessa Gibson, Helen Rosenthal, Rafael Salamanca, and Ritchie Torres; and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.
“Our bathrooms now look like hotel bathrooms,” Ms. Lamonda continued. “We’ve got new tubs, medicine cabinets, showerheads. Everything is brand new, down to the pipes and floors—they did it all. And they did it while we were in the apartment, and did a really good job keeping it clean. It took only five days to renovate each apartment! Besides all this, nothing changed. Our rent stayed the same. And we have free afterschool programs and summer camp for children [provided by community organization BronxWorks]. We love it.”
At Milbank-Frawley in Manhattan, tour participants marveled at the renovated private courtyard, and toured long-time resident Maxine Campbell’s apartment to see her new kitchen cabinets, floors, and appliances and renovated bathrooms. Tour participants also saw the work currently underway on the building’s façade and retail space. Other upgrades at the development include two new laundry rooms, security enhancements, and a new on-site management office.
DeReese Huff is the Resident Association President of Campos Plaza 1, which was renovated through the same innovative partnership that transformed Bronxchester and Milbank-Frawley. “I think they did a great job, and it was way overdue,” she said. “We got a whole new backyard, including plants and benches. It’s like a baby Central Park. And it’s wonderful to see different communities coming together there now.”
“We have an historic opportunity to set a new standard for public housing, recreating what public housing can be, through Section 8 rehabs like this one [at Bronxchester],” Council Member Torres said during the Bronx tour.
On the Manhattan tour, Borough President Gale Brewer said she was pleased “to see the way in which public-private partnership has come together and has made a difference. It’s an alternative for residents to get the kind of living situation they truly deserve.”
During the tours, Chair Olatoye stressed how similar improvements can be made through a federal program known as RAD (the Rental Assistance Demonstration program). NYCHA is seeking to upgrade 5,200 NYCHA apartments through RAD, which shifts their funding from the public housing program to the Section 8 rental voucher program while leveraging additional private funds for improvements and maintaining tenants’ rights and protections. NYCHA is currently upgrading 1,400 apartments at the Ocean Bay-Bayside development in the Far Rockaways through RAD. Visit NYCHA’s website, www.nyc.gov/nycha, for more information about RAD and its benefits.