Hoax Alert: Housing Authority Confirms 3 Harlem Housing Complexes are not Being Demolished for Luxury Condos

HARLEM, NY — The New York City Housing Authority shot down rumors Monday that three public housing complexes in Harlem were being demolished for luxury condos.

A July 8 blog post, which was shared over 10,000 times on Facebook, claimed that an unnamed billionaire had purchased the Polo Grounds Towers, Drew-Hamilton Houses and Harlem River Houses. The blog went on to say that the billionaire was going to demolish the housing units and build 6,000 luxury condos. The post was written by a "Jett Rubenstein."

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But the post was nothing but a hoax, a NYCHA spokesperson told Patch.

"These rumors are 100% not true and irresponsible. Every step NYCHA is taking under NextGeneration NYCHA, the Authority’s ten-year strategic plan, is to prevent the demolition and abandonment of public housing like other cities have done. NYCHA does not know the source of these false statements, which are intended to incite little more than panic, but residents can be assured they are completely untrue and baseless," a spokesperson told Patch in an emailed statement.

It looks like those 10,000 Facebook users were duped.

If the rumor was true, thousands of people would have been removed from affordable housing.

Here's NYCHA data on each of the housing units:

Drew-Hamilton Houses

• Number of apartments: 1217
• Total population: 2,868
• Residential buildings: 5
• Non-residential buildings: 0

Harlem River I&II

• Number of apartments: 693
• Total population: 1,295
• Residential buildings: 8
• Non-residential buildings: 0

Polo Grounds Towers

• Number of apartments: 1614
• Total population: 3,942
• Residential buildings: 4
• Non-residential buildings: 4

Patch left a message with "Jett Rubenstein," which has not been returned.

[Photo: Polo Grounds Towers circa January 2013 via Google Maps street view]