A reminder on what PACT privatization is
When a NYCHA development goes into the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program, a private company becomes the property manager, and residents have to sign Section 8 leases. Their apartments get “rehabilitation,” which is often low-quality, shoddy work that disrupts their lives for several years. In return, private developers and investors receive hundreds of millions in developer fees, financing fees, federal contracts, and rent collections from residents. It’s a massive money grab.
For NYCHA, PACT conversions have helped the agency create the illusion of a solution for neglected, deteriorating buildings, a problem they helped create. NYCHA gets to pass off property management to other entities, get positive press coverage when they announce billions in new “investment” into their developments, and their top bureaucrats get paid handsomely to oversee it all.
Meanwhile for residents, PACT privatization has already meant much higher evictions compared to dealing with NYCHA. At developments like Twin Parks West and Linden Houses, there have been more eviction cases than there are apartments.
What does NYCHA’s latest PACT eviction data say?
On its website, NYCHA publishes data on work orders and evictions for PACT developments. This data has shown in real time how property managers behave when they take over NYCHA properties.
After NYCHA recently uploaded new data, we can now see there have been 12,500 eviction cases brought against residents in PACT developments. This represents 40% of the 31,000 households that are now in PACT.
The actual evictions are ramping up, too. There have been nearly 400 documented evictions in PACT developments in the past five years. This doesn’t count households that self-evict due to harassment or mistreatment.
This data tells a clear story: PACT property managers are aggressively targeting NYCHA residents with eviction threats to intimidate and force them to pay more rent.
Which PACT developments have the most eviction cases?
Which PACT developments have the highest proportion of eviction cases?
Which PACT developments have the Most eviction cases in the past nine months?
What has Mamdani said or done about PACT evictions?
On October 11, Mamdani held an “accountability assembly” with NYCHA residents in Flushing. As far as we know, he didn’t address criticisms about evictions tied to NYCHA privatization. When he released his “Block by Block” plan for citywide housing policy, he didn’t say a word about eviction threats in privatized NYCHA developments, either. It’s been crickets from him and his team.
Concerns about displacement have long been a worry with PACT privatization, and the pile of data pointing to escalating threats and aggressive tactics can’t be denied. The least Mamdani could do is say something eloquent, like he does for everything else, to acknowledge displacement worries that are growing amidst NYCHA privatization. But he hasn’t even done that, let alone take real action to hold predatory PACT landlords accountable.
And for the record, of all the private companies involved in NYCHA privatization, two names are the most notorious and widespread for their harassment and mistreatment of residents: C+C Management and Wavecrest Management. But they’re far from the only real estate companies and nonprofits responsible for this.
What Can we do about this?
The past few years, been to several PACT developments and learned about widespread abuse of residents following privatization, including at Linden, Boston Secor, and Edenwald Houses. But we haven’t been to most of these developments to talk to residents about their experiences and more systematically document the neglect and harassment that continued from NYCHA to a private landlord. We need to do that, and if you want to join us for it, hit us up.
If you’re a NYCHA resident at one of these PACT developments with crazy eviction stats, contact us about your experience. Get in touch to help us expose and confront NYCHA and these private companies for what they’re putting people through.
A wave of displacement and urban cleansing of NYCHA residents will only be prevented if we band together to stop it. Mamdani and other politicians won’t do anything about it. It has to be us.
