What Olatoye built at NYCHA
Enraged tenants and their advocates may see the departure of NYCHA Chair Shola Olatoye, whose last day is today, as a great victory. But the truth is her impact on the direction of the authority will be felt for decades — to the likely benefit of those who call public housing home.
Mayor de Blasio recruited Olatoye from Enterprise Community Partners for her expertise navigating today’s successful public/private system of building and renovating affordable housing. That Olatoye had no public housing management experience before taking over America’s largest housing authority showed that the mayor desired dramatic changes.
Olatoye in 2015 delivered a bold plan, NextGen NYCHA, that posed a direct challenge to the status quo. Public housing would run more like a private enterprise: balance its budgets, deliver better service and collect rents. Key sites would host new development, while some housing projects would shift to private management.
The infill program, known as NextGen Neighborhoods, emerged as an early and distracting flashpoint. Adding new buildings on NYCHA grounds had gotten a bad reputation during the Bloomberg years for aggressive land plays designed to raise revenue. Advocates killed Bloomberg’s bold plan, so Olatoye repackaged infill with an emphasis on affordable housing. Some strong infill projects are underway.
The bigger battle to define NYCHA’s future was, in fact, taking place elsewhere in the public housing system. NextGen’s more radical plan was the conversion of NYCHA units to private management.
In the 1990s, tenant advocates had fought off privatization proposals by the Giuliani administration, then held the line even as other cities shifted many projects to private management. NYCHA privatization became the third rail of public-housing politics.
Privatization, however, was back under Olatoye with a friendly name: Permanently Affordable Communities Together. PACT is NYCHA’s version of HUD’s nationally popular Rental Assistance Demonstration program, which by converting traditional public housing to federal Section 8 subsidies enables housing authorities to tap private funds to finance renovations.
Olatoye promised that residents would get renovated apartments, rents would remain low, NYCHA waiting lists would supply new tenants, and NYCHA could retake control down the road. Win-win!
Olatoye’s strategic brilliance was demonstrating the value of PACT through built examples. She moved fast, made deals and soothed tenants. In partnership with major private developers, she created compelling demonstrations of the value of privatization at formerly dilapidated projects like Bronxchester Houses.
NYCHA towers post-renovation featured stunning new playgrounds, shiny new lobbies, lots of security, updated interiors and modernized apartments. Authority administrators gave tours to tenants, the press, architects, politicians. NYCHA wisely recruited tenant leaders to speak for the value of conversion.
Olatoye and city leadership used the early and evident success to sell the fullfledged conversion of 1,400 apartments at Ocean Bay in the Rockaways, which has also since opened to great praise. Thousands of additional units are now in the PACT pipeline.
Tenants and advocates offered surprisingly little resistance to PACT considering their former resistance to privatization. The plans were complicated, benefits real, and alternative options apparently limited. NYCHA leaders were careful to avoid the phrase “privatization” and claimed that NYCHA’s continuing ownership stake would be sufficient to protect residents.
It is no accident that the mayor held his sendoff for Olatoye at Ocean Bay. The mayor heartily endorsed the conversion strategy on display. He made clear to the assembled media and guests that the City of New York did not have an open checkbook for NYCHA renovation.
Advocates of public housing preservation now find themselves in the uncomfortable position of traditional public-school advocates fighting expansion of charter schools. Who wants to be against tangible progress? Heating outages, mold and lead issues highlight how NYCHA’s traditional maintenance methods are no match for aging apartments.
Should PACT scale up, it will surely face some pushback, from NYCHA employees who face an uncertain future and from residents under a managers who will not tolerate chronic rent nonpayment or “kids” vandalizing elevators.
Weathering those storms will take continued strong leadership on the trail Olatoye blazed. Demonstrating what successful privatization looks like, improving conditions while protecting tenants, is her legacy to New York.