Hit Pause On Harlem Public Housing Privatization, Pols Tell City

HARLEM, NY — Tenants and city leaders are pushing the city to pause its plan to turn another Harlem housing complex over to private developers, saying that the initiative has suffered from a lack of input from people who live there.

The dispute centers on the Manhattanville Houses, a New York City Housing Authority complex that runs along Amsterdam Avenue between West 129th and 133rd streets. Like many residents of the city's troubled public housing buildings, Manhattanville's roughly 3,000 tenants suffer from mold, broken appliances, heating outages and other issues.

Enter the PACT program, a controversial plan in which thousands of NYCHA apartments will be transferred to for-profit companies that are more capable of making repairs. The six buildings at Manhattanville are now set to be converted to private ownership, joining other neighborhood developments like the Harlem River Houses, which recently underwent the change.

In an eye-catching addition to the plan, NYCHA also intends to sell air rights and a chunk of land on the Manhattanville campus to another private developer, who will build a 26-story apartment tower on the site. That project, first reported by Patch last fall, is also intended to raise money for repairs — but it has stoked opposition among Manhattanville tenants, who fear it will block sunlight and disrupt their lives.

Tensions were on display during a February town hall convened by Community Board 9, where some tenants said their neighbors remained unaware of the changeover — while those who did know were given no ability to challenge it.

"When NYCHA presented that they were going to make changes to the building, it didn’t seem like an option," said a tenant who identified herself as Laura, who has lived in the complex for nearly 50 years. "They made it seem like this is what’s happening, and that you either roll with it or transfer out."

Citing tenants' concerns, U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat asked NYCHA last week to put the Manhattanville PACT conversion on hold.

"While I understand the urgent necessity to address the capital repair backlog and deteriorating housing stock, reports to my office suggest that resident engagement has been inadequate," the congressman wrote in a letter sent Monday to NYCHA's chairman. Espaillat asked NYCHA to halt the conversion until it responded in writing to a series of questions about the plan.

Though NYCHA held six public meetings with Manhattanville tenants about the conversion, they were poorly attended, having happened during the "height of the COVID-19 pandemic," according to Espaillat. Meanwhile, residents remain confused about eviction protections and affordability under their new landlords, Espaillat said.

Reached for comment, a NYCHA spokesperson did not respond specifically to Espaillat's demands but defended the agency's outreach, adding that no developer has been chosen yet to carry out the Manhattanville renovations.

"NYCHA does rigorous resident engagement prior to all PACT deals and will continue to incorporate resident feedback into future plans. Since summer 2021, NYCHA has been meeting with Manhattanville residents, resident association leaders and local stakeholders, including elected officials, to communicate plans and receive feedback on both the PACT and air rights projects," spokesperson Rochel Leah Goldblatt said.

$223 million in renovations

Espaillat follows other local officials in objecting to parts of the Manhattanville plan. Last month, City Councilmember Shaun Abreu and Borough President Mark Levine wrote their own letter to NYCHA, asking the agency to give residents more input.

The upcoming renovations at Manhattanville Houses will cost $223 million, including repairs to apartments, building exteriors, common spaces and utilities, according to a presentation that NYCHA gave to tenants in July.

At other NYCHA developments that have already transitioned to private management, the new landlords have gotten a mixed reception. Tenants of the Ocean Bay complex in Far Rockaway, Queens have celebrated the repairs that their homes underwent; but a recent report found that eviction rates increased at Ocean Bay and another complex in the Bronx after they were privatized.

The new tower at Manhattanville would include 393 apartments, a community facility, and a new supermarket replacing the Associated Supermarket that occupied the site until it was destroyed by fire in 2013.

So-called "infill" projects have sparked pushback at other NYCHA developments. In 2019, the agency dropped plans to build a 50-story private tower atop a playground at the Holmes Towers on the Upper East Side — which NYCHA said would raise $25 million for repairs, but which residents criticized for its size and lack of public input.

Related coverage:

• New 26-Story Tower Coming To Harlem NYCHA Campus, Plans Show
• Harlem Tenants Protest Privatization As City Finalizes Deal
• Harlem NYCHA Complexes To Transition To Private Management: City

Have a Harlem news tip? Email reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com