{"id":1226,"date":"2025-11-19T11:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/?p=1226"},"modified":"2025-12-08T14:55:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T14:55:22","slug":"as-demolition-looms-chelsea-residents-stand-their-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/as-demolition-looms-chelsea-residents-stand-their-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"As demolition looms, Chelsea residents stand their ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Celines Miranda was born and raised in the Elliott-Chelsea House on West 26th Street. She lives in an apartment with her elderly mother, who has grown disoriented by her surroundings. But now, Miranda \u2014 one of the vice presidents of the Chelsea Tenants Organization \u2014 is fighting to<\/span> save<\/span> the community that she grew up with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we got a demolition here, and if she lives through it, she\u2019s not gonna know where she\u2019s at,\u201d Miranda said in an interview with WSN. \u201cShe\u2019s not gonna recognize her community, she\u2019s not going to recognize her home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her mother is one of many elderly residents at the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses, which are collectively home to about 5,000 people that have gotten caught in the middle of a yearslong public housing dispute. The developments face demolition by a New York City Housing Authority project \u2014 in partnership with Related Companies, one of the largest <\/span>private landowners<\/span><\/a> in the country, and Essence Development \u2014 to replace FEC Houses with predominantly private units. At a city Committee on Public Housing meeting in February, Miranda spoke on behalf of residents, where she noted that a petition against the demolition had garnered nearly 1,000 signatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

In July, NYCHA gave some FEC residents a <\/span>90-day notice<\/span><\/a> to vacate their homes, guaranteeing them the right to return to a \u201ccompleted NYCHA replacement building\u201d without a specified time frame. A separate NYCHA report estimated that the replacement buildings would be completed within <\/span>eight years<\/span><\/a>. While the vast majority of residents are not required to relocate during the redevelopment process, NYCHA <\/span>sued at least nine senior residents<\/span><\/a> last week who were told to vacate but remained in their apartments. Since then, a judge ruled in favor of two seniors, saying that the <\/span>agency cannot force them to relocate<\/span><\/a> \u2014 and residents continue to fight on against the proposed demolition.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week tenant organizers hosted a free screening of Natasha Florentino\u2019s new documentary \u201cA Home Worth Fighting For,\u201d which follows a tenant group\u2019s battle against the demolition of FEC Houses at the Communist Party USA headquarters in Chelsea. Florentino\u2019s father, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, inherited her childhood apartment in the Upper West Side from his own father, from which her family was subsequently displaced when she was a teenager.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The experience inspired Florentino to learn more about city politics, and she has since been advocating for NYCHA housing justice issues for the last few years. She said that many U.S. cities have long supported the demolition of public housing for revitalization \u2014\u00a0New York, however, has historically resisted that approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNew York really stayed away from that,\u201d Florentino told WSN. \u201cSo I was very shocked that [the demolition] was taking place, and I knew that it was important to document it. Because to me, it signaled a drastic shift in the way NYCHA was starting to view public housing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The move away from public housing to private management for FEC Houses <\/span>began in 2019<\/span><\/a>, when the de Blasio administration aimed to address the need for renovations in NYCHA buildings by partnering with private real estate developers. However, these proposals, in accordance with the <\/span>Permanent Affordability Commitment Together<\/span><\/a> program, instead faced criticism for privatizing public housing and dissolving <\/span>tentants’ protections<\/span><\/a> \u2014 the set of laws that protect the rights of public housing tenants. This would leave residents under <\/span>Section 8 housing<\/span><\/a>, which no longer protects their right to rent at a fixed maximum of 30% of income and also requires tenants to pay utilities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Public input on the demolition first occurred in 2023. Residents were <\/span>surveyed<\/span><\/a> on two options: the rehabilitation of apartments or the complete demolition and rebuilding of NYCHA homes, both of which involved the privatization of NYCHA housing. An option for housing to stay public was not listed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most respondents were <\/span>in favor<\/span><\/a> of the demolition, though the survey was only filled out by <\/span>30% of residents<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf 70% did not participate, it\u2019s not resident-led,\u201d Miranda said. \u201cThis is what the developers want. This is what NYCHA wants. And they take it and run with it because they\u2019re within their legal right to do so, but it is ethically wrong.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some residents argue that the NYCHA deal is harmful for both residents and the environment. FEC properties are home to 370 mature trees \u2014 demolition would mean cutting down the canopy, which provides shade and cleaner air not just for residents, but also the Chelsea neighborhood at large.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saundrea Coleman, another longtime NYCHA resident and president of the Holmes-Isaac Coalition, believes the loss of trees in the area would only amplify the loss of life that would come with demolition.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAre they really looking at the psychological impact, not just on the NYCHA residents, but the communities as a whole?\u201d Coleman told WSN. \u201cWe need our trees, we need our spaces. We need the grass to still be green.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

FEC Tenants Against Demolition had <\/span>sued NYCHA in October<\/span><\/a> and is currently awaiting a Dec. 4 court date. In the meantime, residents and tenant organizers continue to collect signatures, rally against demolition and defend the future of public housing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been this slow awakening throughout the Chelsea community that public housing is valuable,\u201d Florentino said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to get rid of it. We don\u2019t want this neighborhood to become for the extreme wealthy \u2014 we need to have this rich, diverse community to continue to thrive here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact Danica Guan at culture@nyunews.com<\/em><\/p>\n

This story As demolition looms, Chelsea residents stand their ground<\/a> appeared first on Washington Square News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celines Miranda was born and raised in the Elliott-Chelsea House on West 26th Street. She lives in an apartment with her elderly mother, who has grown disoriented by her surroundings. But now, Miranda \u2014 one of the vice presidents of the Chelsea Tenants Organization \u2014 is fighting to save the community that she grew up…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1226"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1229,"href":"http:\/\/goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions\/1229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}