Saving Public Housing
By Building Anew

Additional affordable housing can be provided through incentives such as the New York "80/20" program that permits larger buildings if 20 percent of their units are offered at below-market rents. And tax credits and/or building bonuses can be extended to developers erecting public amenities and services on a turnkey basis (e.g. schools, libraries and community centers). Although new to NYCHA, such programs have ample precedent in New York City.

One of the nation's largest concentrations of public housing would be preserved, providing affordable housing to low-income people, a model that can be applied to public housing across the city.

From the sale or lease of a portion of its property, the New York City Housing Authority can create a fund or income stream to preserve and improve public housing projects on both the site and elsewhere. New York City, expecting an increase of one million residents over the next 20 years, would identify a new and very desirable location for thousands of housing units at a variety of price points. The city would also earn higher property tax revenues.

And the site area's residents will enjoy more vibrant neighborhoods as well as improved transportation that will give them access to services, jobs and educational opportunities in the Lower East Side and elsewhere in Manhattan and the city, especially important to people living in public housing.

A new opportunity for New York

Of course, it can be expected that embarking on such an ambitious redevelopment effort would elicit reactions from existing public-housing tenants. Rightfully, they will be concerned about the effort's effects on both their housing's affordability and their community's quality of life. A response can be to make them part of the "deal" by assuring them the continuance of affordable housing through new subsidies brought by development, giving them priority for new and/or improved apartments, or offering them equity stakes in the development.

With the current national economic downturn, now is an opportune time to plan the future of all of New York City's public housing – as so much of its original planning was done in the 1930s during the Great Depression. With the growing attractiveness of neighborhoods where public housing is located (including Chelsea, the Upper West Side, Harlem, Fort Greene, Red Hook, and Long Island City), versions of the Michigan concepts for the Lower East Side can be developed for NYCHA projects across the city, each tailored to the needs and market conditions of their communities.

With its vast inventory, NYCHA has the opportunity to create a model for city life: mixed-income, mixed-use communities where the stock of low-income, affordable housing is preserved and balances "gentrification."

Here is NYCHA's opportunity to transform its projects – and the neighborhoods and skyline of New York.

Roy Strickland is Director of the Master of Urban Design Program of the University of Michigan. He led the Michigan design team consisting of Komal Anand, Daren Crabill, Emek Erdolu, Yingying Guan, Seung-Hyun Kim, Rachana Ky, Jun-Yi Lin, Obiamaka Ofodile, Kwangseok Oh, Danna Reyes, Amal Shaaban and Xuan Zheng.