As he’s made splashy headlines for a rent freeze, and as his fans keep fawning over their new favorite politician, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has plowed ahead with long-running plans to privatize and demolish New York’s public housing.
In May, the Mamdani office released their “Block by Block” policy paper, what they call a “housing plan for a new era.” They promise to target predatory landlords and build new affordable housing.
As for the 500,000 people living in decrepit conditions in NYCHA, “Block by Block” pledges new funding, more resident engagement, and better call centers. But most importantly, the Mamdani team is doubling down on the city’s favorite NYCHA privatization scheme: Permanent Affordability Commitment Together, or PACT. Through PACT, NYCHA has already converted over 100 developments and tens of thousands of units, in the process forcing residents to sign Section 8 leases while bringing in private companies as their new property managers.
A growing chorus of criticism has plagued NYCHA’s privatization push, including residents voting against PACT conversions, like they did at Jacob Riis Houses last year and at Isaacs Houses in March. “Block by Block” dances around that criticism, saying the administration will inquire “where [PACT] may fall short of meeting its goals.” But the billion-dollar PACT industry is still getting a full-speed-ahead directive from Mamdani, with promises to continue the program without major changes.
In his “Block by Block” speech announcing this amazing new era of housing in New York City, Mamdani said, “After decades of disinvestment, NYCHA tenants have come to expect that no matter who is in office, they will be overlooked. Their concerns will be ignored. That ends today.”
Several weeks after Mamdani’s sweeping promise, a judge struck down a lawsuit from NYCHA residents of Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses aiming to stop the demolition and privatization of their development. Since May, we also found data from NYCHA showing that 417 eviction cases have been brought against residents of Harlem River Houses, which was privatized under PACT in 2022, and where residents also unsuccessfully sued NYCHA to try to reverse the conversion.
At Boston Secor Houses—where PACT property manager Wavecrest Management ignored complaints of a gas smell prior to an explosion that killed a resident in January—Dare to Struggle has continued to document eviction threats, electrical outages, an ongoing gas outage, and residents having their belongings stolen by people working for NYCHA’s PACT partners.
In his “Block by Block” speech, Mamdani said, “What makes this plan distinct is not the language of this plan, the words that are used, because New Yorkers have seen politicians come and go promising everything that they can find in the city. What makes it different, frankly, is the level of commitment behind those words.”
There is nothing different or distinct about Mayor Mamdani’s commitment to ignore NYCHA residents’ concerns while putting the interests of real estate companies above them. With that, he has quickly proven that he’s just another Democrat.
Paving the way for demolition
For seven years, residents of Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses have fought NYCHA and Related Companies, the billion-dollar real estate company plotting to take over their development. In that time, residents have voiced their concerns against demolition, and now they face daily harassment from Related Companies and NYCHA for refusing to leave their homes.
A 76-year old resident, Cui Ping Sun, wrote in an affidavit for the lawsuit that was recently struck down: “It makes me feel like I do not want to live anymore. This is a cruel world where the profits of developers became more important than the lives of people. I feel like I should just die to give NYCHA and the developers what they want.”
In 2023, Related Companies circulated a survey as part of their “resident engagement” process. This survey did not mention the demolition plans, or that thousands of market-rate and “affordable” units would also be built in new high rises on the property. Related Companies has led the massive redevelopment of Hudson Yards, building skyscrapers with luxury apartments renting for $6,000 and demanding a $2 billion tax break from the city for the final stage of construction. Related’s founder, Stephen Ross, has a net worth of $17 billion and owns the Miami Dolphins.
While Mamdani’s team has indicated they may pull the city’s tax break for Hudson Yards, they’re offering full public support for Related’s plans to demolish Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses. Cea Weaver, who leads the “Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants”—and who previously tweeted about how private property should be seized—said about the Chelsea demolition plans in July, “I really believe that the path forward is to replace the public housing with a new form of public housing that is more sustainable into the future.”
For Weaver and Mamdani, this “new form of public housing” means teaming up with billionaire real estate developers to harass and displace NYCHA’s senior citizens. What’s happening in Chelsea is likely the first of many demolition projects to come for NYCHA developments.
Ignoring eviction threats
According to NYCHA’s website, between 2021 and 2025, PACT property managers initiated over 8,000 eviction cases against residents. This amount represents 30% of PACT apartments across the city, in just four years (we don’t know how many apartments have had multiple cases). At Twin Parks West in the Bronx, there have been 538 eviction cases initiated under PACT at a development with only 312 apartments—more eviction cases than there are apartments. At Linden Houses, 1,580 cases for 1,922 apartments. At Baychester and Murphy Houses, 537 cases for 711 apartments.
It’s too sterile to just talk about eviction threats as statistics. When NYCHA residents face these threats from PACT property managers, they are harassed, intimidated, disrespected, lied to, dragged to court, and forced to endure a debilitating ordeal. These eviction threats are brought against senior citizens, disabled residents, residents who don’t speak English, and residents who have faithfully paid their rent on time, in full, year after year. PACT property managers are preying on people, seeking to drive them out or force them to cough up more rent money than what they actually owe.
We’ve heard of dozens of instances from residents living under PACT that their rent gets double charged or miscalculated, clerical errors and intentional falsifications that leave them worried about losing their homes or having to clean out their savings. With eviction cases on their record, NYCHA residents are more exposed to eviction orders in the court system, and many will decide they’ve had enough and will self-evict, making way for tenants who will pay higher rent.
The word “eviction” doesn’t appear once in the NYCHA section of Mamdani’s “Block by Block” paper. Apparently it didn’t merit mentioning, but the negative testimonies are only multiplying. In December, Mamdani’s lil bro Brad Lander published a damning audit exposing elevated evictions at PACT developments. In June, an administrative error from NYCHA led to hundreds of PACT households having their Section 8 rent subsidy terminated and evictions initiated, leading to panic among residents.
Beyond eviction threats, reporting in late 2025 exposed nearly 16,000 housing code violations at PACT developments over four years, or three code violations for every five apartments. What more evidence of predatory behavior by PACT landlords does Mamdani’s team need?
Making no changes to NYCHA’s leadership team
Since taking office, Mamdani has not replaced any of NYCHA’s top leaders, and he hasn’t indicated he plans to do so. These government executives have carried over from the Adams administration, as has NYCHA’s board of directors. Mamdani’s “new era” for NYCHA has kicked off with keeping the old regime intact.
The heads of NYCHA are responsible for overseeing one of the most catastrophic public health disasters in the United States. Mold, asbestos, lead, dirty water, polluted air, broken elevators, fires, and electrical outages shorten residents’ lifespans every day.
In the past decade, NYCHA has made the repair process more dysfunctional and ineffective. Major crises like the explosion and partial building collapse at Mitchel Houses in October are becoming more frequent. And while NYCHA’s top leadership whine and blame the federal government, it’s clear they’ve worked hard to make sure the steady deterioration of the buildings continues.
Daniel Greene, NYCHA’s VP of Property Management, runs PR cover for NYCHA’s worst health crises. When a contaminated water crisis coincided with arsenic poisoning at Jacob Riis Houses in 2022, Greene led meetings at the development in the months following to lie to residents about the safety of their drinking water. When a Legionnaires’ outbreak killed a NYCHA resident at Langston Hughes Houses in 2024, Greene held meetings with residents where he told them to take cold showers and not worry about it. In 2025, Greene was paid $280,000.
Eva Trimble is NYCHA’s Chief Operating Officer. During her tenure, NYCHA’s apartment vacancies have doubled, reaching over 6,800 units in March. Women applying for emergency transfers due to domestic violence are now facing longer wait times, especially in PACT developments where the transfer process is more complicated. As the contaminated water crisis began at Riis Houses in 2022, Trimble failed to request expedited results for water testing and allowed weeks to pass before NYCHA told Riis residents to stop drinking the water. In 2025, Trimble was paid $293,000.
Lisa Bova-Hiatt is NYCHA’s Chief Executive Officer. When a reporter asked her what NYCHA will do about elderly residents in Chelsea who refuse to relocate for the demolition, she replied, “To say that under no circumstances are they going to relocate? Ultimately they will.” Bova-Hiatt was paid $400,000 in 2025. She lives in a $1.4 million home in Staten Island.
These executives are responsible for the immiseration of hundreds of thousands of NYCHA residents. They treat Black and Latino families as disposable and undeserving of basic dignity. They lie through their teeth in every press conference and city council hearing they attend. They’ve made millions in their careers as city bureaucrats, and now they’re inviting private developers to join the party so they can make billions. And they’re all Mamdani-approved.
A new era?
Until Mamdani and his team stop demolition and privatization plans, until they punish predatory PACT landlords, until they clean house of NYCHA’s criminal executives, and until they get everyone working for NYCHA to do their job or face consequences—until they do any of this, Mamdani and his people should have some shame and stop acting like they’re anything different or distinct.
With how he’s moving now, by the end of Mamdani’s tenure it will not have been the start of a new era for NYCHA residents. It will have been more of the same: a private takeover and a growing wave of displacement.
No politicians are coming to help. Residents already know this. Voter turnout is always low in NYCHA developments after generations of people hearing empty promises. Instead of the electoral hype machine, it will take a flood of collective action among NYCHA residents confronting their oppressors to see real changes, whether it’s going after NYCHA or a private landlord who messes with their lives.
That’s the fight we want to spread, block by block.
Dare to Struggle 