Issue #1, Jan 2025
Letter from the Editor
If you live in public housing, you’re all too familiar with inhumane conditions and ineffective repairs. NYCHA regularly ignores tickets and whenever they do “repairs,” the work is so poorly done that the problem soon returns. This neglect is deliberate—NYCHA lets repairs go unaddressed so they can present privatization as the solution. In reality, privatization means the same shoddy repairs and skyrocketing evictions. Predatory real estate companies are only interested in lining their pockets, even if it means putting people on the street. The purpose of this newsletter is to report on NYCHA news and residents’ stories facing the NYCHA nightmare. As NYCHA and mainstream media spread lies about the benefits of privatization programs, we will share testimonies about the neglect from private management companies and expose “the suits” that plan to get rid of the projects.
Dare to Struggle is a political organization dedicated to standing with the people subjected to the American Nightmare and organizing them in collective struggle. In our NYCHA campaign, we’re working to establish Rogue Residents, an organization mobilizing people living in housing to collectively fight back against privatization schemes. Together we’ve held regular meetings, organized protests, and confronted NYCHA management offices to demand repairs. In the face of evictions, rent increases, and hazardous conditions, we must mobilize together and lead a citywide fight against gentrification and urban cleansing.
New PACT Eviction Data Proves The Dangers Of NYCHA Privatization
In December, city comptroller Brad Lander released a report showing NYCHA properties in the PACT program had an eviction rate nearly five times higher than the rest of NYCHA in 2024. This is further proof of what we’ve known: PACT privatization has resulted in increased evictions of NYCHA residents.
PACT (Permanent Affordability Commitment Together) is a privatization scheme that NYCHA has rolled out around the city. Nearly 90 developments with over 40,000 residents are already in PACT. Residents at developments put into PACT are forced to sign a new lease, receive a Section 8 voucher, and a private company becomes their new property manager.
PACT evictions were 475% higher in 2024 compared to the rest of NYCHA.
This is why we call PACT what it really is: a Premeditated Arrangement to Cast out the Tenants.”
In 2022, a report from Human Rights Watch exposed that PACT brought increased evictions at some of the first NYCHA developments to be converted. Then in March 2024, reporting from The City showed that landlords at PACT developments served eviction proceedings to one out of six apartments during 2023. Now, data from the recent city comptroller report show that PACT evictions were 475% higher in 2024 compared to the rest of NYCHA. This is why we call PACT what it really is: a Premeditated Arrangement to Cast out the Tenants.
Linden Houses in Brownsville, Brooklyn has some of the highest eviction numbers. In 2023, 44% of apartments at Linden Houses faced eviction proceedings. The new landlord, C+C Management, had an eviction rate nine times higher than NYCHA in 2023.
C+C Management has proven to be an enemy of the people living in NYCHA. At Edenwald Houses in the Bronx, we’ve learned from residents about the hellish experiences they’ve been through after “comprehensive repairs” began in their buildings under C+C. One resident we met calls them “Crooks and Criminals,” and another called the management change a “hostile takeover.” A widespread sentiment among Edenwald residents is that C+C is no better than NYCHA.
1 in 10 PACT apartments faced eviction in 2023
Real estate companies like C+C are the driving force of NYCHA privatization. They have won favor from city officials to take over NYCHA properties, and they have one objective in mind: make as much money as they can off the people living in housing. This means cutting corners on repairs, driving up the rent, and driving the people out. We call this process urban cleansing.
If you catch wind that PACT is coming to your development, be sure to tell your neighbors: PACT means private, and private means evictions.
The Resident Space
Interview with Yvette Quinoñes from Riis Houses in Manhattan by Rogue Residents
Residents of public housing in NYC live in terrible conditions. What led to this is a tale of indifference, greed, and accumulated deteriorations? The work on the ground, interviewing and talking to residents, demonstrates how intentional this negligence is by NYCHA.
The conditions of Yvette Quiñones’s apartment in Riis Houses in Manhattan is just one case. Yvette is disabled and wheelchair bound. She had one leg amputated due to a fall in her apartment after she requested accessibility accommodations to NYCHA.
Persistent leaks in her kitchen and bathroom have plagued Yvette for years. Instead of dealing with the underlying issue, contractors always paint and plaster over the damaged area. In November, we learned from Yvette of unfinished repairs, walls left open, and missing cabinets that were never replaced. This prevented her from being able to hold Thanksgiving with her family.
Rogue Residents advocated on her behalf and sent an email to NYCHA official Daniel Greene, demanding action to correct this situation. To our surprise, most of the work was completed within days. So why did it take so long to address this situation? Is it simply NYCHA’s dysfunction, or is it a systemic oppressive force that seeks to cleanse Riis of a certain demographic as they move towards privatization?
I listened to Yvette’s story, and my sense was that outside forces have severely affected the quality of her life. She is vocal and fights against “gentrification on steroids.” When I asked her about her views on the RAD/PACT privatization efforts, she responded, “I don’t trust the PACT and it will serve to move low-income residents out.”
NYCHA insists that market forces are here to save the day and improve living conditions. In the meantime, there are thousands of stories like Yvette’s of people left to fend for themselves. We need to investigate, document, and expose these inhumanities and point to the collective fight that’s needed. The ultimate force is bringing residents together and making demands that benefit them, remain permanent, and do not benefit the profiteers.
Rogue Residents will continue to expose, agitate and bury oppression wherever it exists. This has proliferated for too long without any meaningful response. Our goal is to educate, build, and maintain a powerful voice speaking out against the NYCHA nightmare.
NYCHA FORCES RESIDENTS FACING DOMESTIC ABUSE TO WAIT YEARS FOR TRANSFERS
Thousands of NYCHA residents facing domestic abuse wait months and years for apartment transfers, according to a recent report from Legal Services NYC. The report indicated there are at least 2,000 residents facing domestic violence on NYCHA’s emergency transfer waitlist. This waitlist has an average wait time of 797 days.
While residents wait desperately for transfers, NYCHA has allowed the number of vacant apartments to skyrocket to over 5,000. Most of the people needing transfers due to domestic violence are women. NYCHA forces them to endure life-threatening living situations as superintendents take bribes for apartment repairs and let vacant units sit empty.
Legal Services NYC interviewed multiple residents who waited years for emergency transfers. One resident, a Black mother of three children, requested a transfer in 2022, and over a year later, she was attacked and hospitalized. “I was assaulted while waiting to be transferred,” she told Legal Services NYC. “We were told there was nothing they could do. I had to leave with my kids and go to a shelter just to stay safe.”
“I was assaulted while waiting to be transferred. I had to leave with my kids and go to a shelter just to stay safe.” – A resident on the emergency transfer waitlist for over a year
Another resident told Legal Services: “I have had to wait almost three years, and I still don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. NYCHA has not helped. I feel so abandoned. We are not documents to be moved from one drawer to another—we are human beings who have to deal with life and very difficult situations.”NYCHA created this crisis and cannot be trusted to solve it. Equally complicit are the city politicians who pretend to be concerned without taking meaningful action. Domestic abuse survivors need to be immediately transferred to safe housing. Residents must demand this, and, if able, provide support to families in imminent danger.
Print and take out this issue!
We need a chapter of Rogue Residents at every development to mobilize residents in the fight against privatization but bringing people together has not been easy. Poverty, health issues, and fear of retaliation can prevent people from getting involved in the fight. Politicians, nonprofits, and the TA also divert people away from collective struggle through their false promises, and encouraging people to submit their grievances to dead-end official channels that don’t work instead of mass mobilization. The 500,000 people living in public housing in NYC have a common enemy: NYCHA, the city politicians, and the real estate suits plotting to displace them. The only way out is for residents to come together to resist these plans and lead a citywide fight against gentrification and urban cleansing. Here are ways you can get involved and join the fight:
- Join or start a chapter of RR in your development
- Subscribe to our digital newsletter. Print copies and distribute to your neighbors or share on social media
- Reach out to us to share your experiences with the NYCHA Nightmare
Dare to Struggle 