Government disinvestment in public housing has catalyzed its downfall across America. Without proper funding or adequate oversight, public housing facilities – some built as far back as eight decades ago during the New Deal era mandates – are succumbing to age and neglect at all levels of government. Further, many housing authorities have folded or ceded nearly all of their property to private developers to re-mediate massive amounts of debt, resulting from inefficient management at the hands of corrupt housing agencies. Indigent populations who rely on public housing ultimately suffer the burden of this crisis, with difficulties for residents ranging from leaky roofs to unreliable heating systems and broken elevators, among other necessary backlogged repairs. Unsustainable funding is no excuse to deny individuals, some of whom’s families have lived in these developments for generations, the human right of healthy and safe housing. 

As aforementioned, the solution for many public housing authorities in crisis across the nation has been privatization: the transfer of some units owned by public authorities to private operators. The surge in the privatization as a solution to the public housing crisis in some ways reflects a government that has given up entirely. The transferring of residents from public facilities to private landlords is an illusion of improved facilities and living conditions. Still, for residents, this solution lacks avenues to involve community input. Furthermore, privatization is nothing more than a bandage over the more significant systemic problem of economic inequality that a large number of American cities face.  

Cities continue to face income gaps, insecure access to affordable housing, and other realities related to being low-income, however, their governments no longer own land to house these residents adequately. New York City, one of the few cities with substantial amounts of public housing left, has a desperate need for solutions to enhance its public housing that is facing a $32 billion deficit. Such a massive debt has resulted in the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) slowly rolling out its plans for the privatization of under the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration Program (RAD). Eight thousand three hundred seventy units have been signed over as of January 2019, but only two are under full private operation as of October 2019. One of the first RAD conversions, the Ocean Bay complex in the Rockaways, was transferred to Section 8 housing. Although the ribbon-cutting at Ocean Bay received positive press (and cost $560 million), between January 2017 and February 2019, there have been 80 evictions at the Ocean Bay complex, a little less than double the next highest development in all of NYCHA, Brownsville, where 49 units faced eviction. From this metric alone, we see the notable inefficiency of RAD in accounting for the unique and intersectional needs of all of its residents.

The fight to improve access to affordable housing is a fight for human rights. The crisis of NYCHA is a human problem that deserves a human-based solution, not a financial issue that is resolvable with increased funds alone. Market-based solutions are not the end-all-be-all in solutions to affordable housing seen in the apparent disparities at Ocean Bay. Where are the local coalitions fighting back against governmental neglect and increased transparency? Where is the community-engagement or input as RAD realistically continues to roll out? In advocating for equity throughout the RAD transition process in at-risk neighborhoods, is there a role for locally-based non-profits or developers in this process to forecast potential challenges?

Moreover, where are the creative solutions? New York City has access to brain power, capital, and technology, and the diversity of its structural forces and residents hold incredible levers of power. New York City, also, is home to neighborhoods with some of the highest concentrations of public housing nationwide. Some of the public housing developments across the five boroughs maintain rich internal democratic structures and leadership and have social programs and resources. Why are we not asking what they want when they see the shortcomings daily? Ultimately, these community leaders understand that money is not coming into their housing agencies to fund all their basic needs, and firsthand know the vital need to tackle corruption and organization inefficiency. Improved transparency measures and watchdog pressures could be great short-term solutions. Still, without systematic overhaul and the addressing of the disinvestment and root causes of its growing austerity, many public housing issues will continue to linger for residents for years to come.