Public Housing Redevelopment Projects in New York

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Table of Contents

Introduction
The Two Public Housing Redevelopment Projects
The Roles and Perspectives of the Parties Involved in the Projects
Private Developers
Investors
Government
Surrounding Community Groups
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) entails an initiative of the United States (US) Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that seeks to improve and preserve some types of affordable housing in the cities that HUD subsidizes. The (THIS?) paper identifies two RAD public housing redevelopment projects and discusses the roles and perspectives of the parties involved in the project and the way these perspectives and roles are compared between the projects. In addition, the paper discusses how the jurisdictions/locations of the project affected the nature of the RAD development.

The Two Public Housing Redevelopment Projects

RAD was enacted to permit public housing agencies to switch how they receive funds from the federal. The shifting from the way NYCHA-owned houses have historically been financed ( Section 9) to a program that finances private landlords (Section 8), which permits NYCHA to introduce private funding and supervision of the houses while holding on to the much-required federal financing (Bloom & Lasner, 2016). The switching to RAD because NYCHA requires a lot of money to renovate the public that is right now at $40 billion for physical enhancements of leaky roofs, busted elevators, and outdated pipes and boilers (Schuetz, 2022). Therefore, RAD plays a critical way in underwriting the public housing stock of the city before its collapse. The move to switch public housings over to private developers for improvements and management has shown better results in from other case studies carried out in Mass, Cambridge, and Minneapolis (Vale, 2017). The identified RAD projects comprise Brooklyn, NY Williamsburg Houses, in New York City; and Yonkers, NY cottage Gardens 178 Warburton Ave, Westchester County, New York State.

The Brooklyn, NY Williamsburg Houses, in New York City, is a public housing complex constructed and managed by the NYCHA. It comprises 20 buildings on the location bordered by Maujer, Scholes, Bushwick Avenue, and Leonard Streets (Schuetz, 2022). Plans to switch NYCHA’s Williamsburg public houses to private developers under the RAD, a city’s controversial initiative are being considered. The complex was established from 1936 to 1938 with public works administration financing and is the city’s designated historical sight (Bloom & Lasner, 2016). The transfer of Williamsburg houses to private developers is hoped to efficiently and effectively enhance living conditions for the dwellers. Yonkers, NY cottage Gardens 178 Warburton Ave is another housing project being transferred to RAD (YIMBY, 2020). It is one of the biggest affordable housing redevelopment projects under the RAD in Westchester County, Yonkers city, New York State. The Community Builders (TCB) and the Municipal Housing Authority are constructing it for the City of Yonkers (MHACY) (Mann Publications, 2020). The project will comprise enhancing the houses with modernization and uplifting the face.

The Roles and Perspectives of the Parties Involved in the Projects

The residents will have to pay their rent to the new management and make new leases with them. The project offers an opportunity for the residents to engage more fully in the resolutions affecting the authority’s management and to accept more roles around the issues, which influence their lives. The residents’ perspectives for this project are to be treated with respect and dignity while ensuring all residents have an improved quality of life (Bloom & Lasner, 2016). The residents love the transformations as it improves their lives.

However, some tenants are concerned about the disappearance of transparency under private developer management because when converted to RAD, they will no longer be protected by the Federal monitor. The residents are worried about whether rent will remain low after conversion. In addition, tenants are worried if big fixes such as repairing boilers and roofs may be done under RAD and if the NYCHA staff may be protected under private management (Vale, 2018). Hence, there is a lack of trust in this perspective from the residents.

Private Developers

The roles and perspectives of private developers involved in the project are to carry out improvements to the Williamsburg houses complex. They have to renovate the public space/streetscape comprising parking, sidewalk, tree additions, greenspace, enhanced lighting, and enhancements to the Farmer’s market amenities (Bloom & Lasner, 2016) with the development of a new cultural gathering site. Further, the planned renovations at Williamsburg houses entail wide-ranging and involves activities from lead abatement to renovation of apartment common areas and interiors to replacement of building roofs, entrances, and masonry, heating, windows, and plumbing systems. The improvements comprise reworking property lines to efficiently and effectively permit infill development, and extra rear access alleys to reduce curb cuts and vehicle intrusion into the pedestrian atmosphere. In addition, the developers should redevelop mixed-use/multi-family houses in Williamsburg Housing Complex. The development may comprise ground floor renovations for commercial and retail along street (Bloom & Lasner, 2016).

Furthermore, they will have to develop parking with interior with an exposure to the street. In Williamsburg multi-family houses, service access and patron residents would be served via a two-way drive, which corresponds with the Farmer market drop-off and the future potential expansion to the alley serving the residents on Williamsburg’s East side. However, the potential improvements that private developers will make on Yonkers, NY cottage Gardens 178 Warburton Ave comprise new landscaping, new playgrounds, security cameras, and lighting (YIMBY, 2020). They will have to temporarily relocate residents/tenants to the other vacant units within the complex to complete the redevelopment. The private companies will manage and operate the houses through long-term leases. They need to ensure doing their renovations without having the tenants move. The improvements are aimed at increasing the quality of life of the residents (Bloom & Lasner, 2016). Hence, the role and perspective of private firms will be managing the complex, since this is a sort of privatization.

Investors

The investors’ main role is to provide funds for the redevelopment of the Williamsburg houses complex. They will be offering equity and soft funds that are critical for financing RAD. Investors, therefore, commit funds for the RAD –PACT project (Bloom & Lasner, 2016). In addition, the role represents top management’s dedication to their project and the need for propriety, regularity, and value for capital invested. Besides, providing funds, investors’ perspective in offering RAD moral support to go forward, build on their progress, and attain the goal of providing quality housing to the residents at an affordable rate (Schuetz, 2022). Despite the challenge of financial complexities like projects, flexibility creates RAD conversions more attractive to investors.

Government

The government will have to offer depreciation losses and tax credits to investors for more than 10 years in exchange for the up-front equity investment or funding. Since the redevelopment of public housing properties involves large investments, which go beyond the capacity of groups or individual private enterprises (Schuetz, 2022). Further, investment profits of infrastructure are attainable after a long time. Hence, the role of the state should be to offer public utilities (Vale, 2018). The local governments may enhance RAD redevelopment initiatives by keeping the community members informed and comprising them whenever possible in marketing and decision-making of the society and supporting sustainable business practices.

Surrounding Community Groups

The community group’s roles entail improved resident education concerning the RAD process. They should improve social support and community-building efforts among the affected residents. Surrounding community groups need to join hands in cooperation with private developers to improve the buildings and quality of life for the residents (Schuetz, 2022). This is a wider effort of communities to enhance conditions in their surroundings.

However, comparing the roles and perspectives between the two projects, Brooklyn, NY Williamsburg Housing Complex and NY cottage Gardens 178 Warburton Ave reveals that parties involved in the project had similar roles and perspectives. Both projects aimed at improving the properties’ current state for better and more comfortable living for residents (Bloom & Lasner, 2016). The projects are funded by private and public investors but managed and supervised by private firms. The residents have embraced the move for redevelopments as it will enhance their lives but are skeptical of the transparency and rent being increased after conversion, as they will be under private management. Investors and governments are in support of both projects, as they will bring change to the area. Nonetheless, the locations/ jurisdictions of the projects generally have made RAD strategy to prioritize the development and construction of a prototype other than planning for new buildings (Vale, 2017). The jurisdictions have made RAD determine progress, minimize development time, and enhance faster code generation with regular user feedback.

Conclusion

RAD aims at redeveloping and improving the distressed public housing projects and turns them into modern housing for single and multi-family communities redeveloped in cooperation with private developers. RAD has allowed public housing agencies to leverage private and public equity and debt to reinvest in public housing shares. Hence, units shifted from section 9 to section 8 with a long-term agreement that by law should be renewed in perpetuity. This aims at enhancing the old public affordable housing such as Williamsburg Housing complex and Yonkers, NY Cottage Gardens 178 Warburton Ave and maintaining the same rent under new management.

References

Bloom, N. D., & Lasner, M. G. (2016). Affordable housing in New York: The people, places, and policies that transformed a city (2nd ed.). Princeton University Press.

Mann Publications. (2020). Yonkers housing complex reaches milestone with closing on financing for 178 Warburton at the Ridgeway. Web.

Schuetz, J. (2022). Fixer-upper: How to repair America’s broken housing systems (4th ed.). Brookings Institution Press.

Vale, L. J. (2017). Public housing redevelopment: Seven kinds of success. New Directions in Urban Public Housing, 9(2), 142-178. Web.

Vale, L. J. (2018). Public housing, redevelopment, and the governance of poverty. After the Projects, 3(2), 3-41. Web.

YIMBY. (2020). Affordable housing developers granted $7.85M in financing to complete 178 Warburton at the Ridgeway in Yonkers. Web.

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