{"id":6999,"date":"2026-08-20T11:07:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T11:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6999"},"modified":"2026-08-20T11:07:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T11:07:43","slug":"a-hand-up-not-a-handout-for-public-housing-tenants-nyc-says-no-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6999","title":{"rendered":"A hand up \u2014 not a handout \u2014 for public-housing tenants? NYC says ‘no way’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The New York City Housing Authority grapples with some obvious ills: Elevators break down all the time, crime and gang violence are common, and fixing up aging NYCHA buildings could cost up to $80 billion the agency doesn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n

Read more NJ fire department shut down after 118 years as mayor claimed residents were not safe<\/a><\/p>\n

But some of the problems facing the nation\u2019s largest public housing authority are less visible.<\/p>\n

The average time on the NYCHA waiting list is 46 months \u2014 largely because the average tenant has lived in the projects for 306 months, or 25 years.<\/p>\n

A significant number of residents, 31%, are \u201coverhoused\u201d \u2014 living in apartments with empty bedrooms \u2014 while others in need crowd into shelters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Only 34% of tenants are employed and report \u201cwage income.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump wants to give New York City the tools it needs to do something about those problems.<\/p>\n

NYCHA is saying, no thanks.<\/p>\n

At issue is a new rule proposed by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner that would allow NYCHA and other public-housing authorities across the country to adopt some form of work requirements as well as time limits for tenants \u2014 something like the rules that apply to cash welfare.<\/p>\n

Housing assistance, says Turner, should \u201cactively promote pathways to independence, upward mobility and long-term self-sufficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 200 local authorities \u2014 including those in Philadelphia, New Orleans and Los Angeles County \u2014 have said they support the idea, joining what HUD has dubbed its Work and Dignity Coalition to push for the rule to become final.<\/p>\n

NYCHA, by far the nation\u2019s largest housing authority, with 263,000 units of public or voucher housing, is a notable exception.<\/p>\n

It can\u2019t stop the new rule from taking effect elsewhere \u2014 but it can continue its own status quo that lets 457,000 tenants stay for a lifetime, while the newly needy are locked out.<\/p>\n

HUD thinks a fresh approach can change that.<\/p>\n

But NYCHA sees only doom and gloom.<\/p>\n

It claims that Gotham\u2019s housing shortage is just too acute to set an \u201cup and out\u201d goal \u2014 even one that exempts the elderly and disabled, as HUD\u2019s proposal would do.<\/p>\n

In New York, a NYCHA spokesman told me, the city\u2019s overall 1.5% housing vacancy rate means any time limit would put residents on the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a city where the average market-rate rent for a one-bedroom is between $3,500 and $4,500, time limits would, in effect, price tens of thousands of New Yorkers out of their homes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But on close inspection, the argument doesn\u2019t hold up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For one thing, the 1.5% vacancy rate is an out-of-date 2023 US Census estimate.<\/p>\n

The Furman Center on Housing reports more vacancies than NYCHA claims: 2.8% in Queens, for example, and 4.1% in East New York.<\/p>\n

And high citywide average rents, pushed up by the priciest neighborhoods, hide the fact many rents are much lower: In The Bronx, for instance, the largest share of available two-bedrooms have rents between $1,500 and $2,000. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more I\u2019m the surrogate mother trying to save a baby\u2019s life \u2014 but the biological parents wanted an abortion<\/a><\/p>\n

NYCHA should welcome HUD\u2019s lifeline as a chance to make better use of its huge housing stock.<\/p>\n

But its resistance to the federal \u201cwork and dignity\u201d concept, which includes supportive services to help residents find and keep employment, reflects the false assumption that low income is a life sentence \u2014 and that not even a five-year goal of earning more and moving up the income ladder is possible for the poor to achieve.<\/p>\n

Far better to adopt the principle that any job can be the start of upward mobility \u2014 and can provide an escape hatch from our modern poorhouse.<\/p>\n

A low-cost public-housing apartment should allow tenants to save for the day when they leave the projects, thereby making way for others who need short-term assistance.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, HUD\u2019s work and time-limit rules wouldn\u2019t have to apply to NYCHA\u2019s full population.<\/p>\n

The authority could, for example, apply it just to each year\u2019s new tenants \u2014 who comprise only 6% annually. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The proposed HUD program isn\u2019t one-size-fits-all,but would let housing authorities set the rule based on local housing conditions.<\/p>\n

Yet even a\u00a0five-year time limit targeted only to new tenants would have immense benefits for NYCHA.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

It would gradually overhaul the system\u2019s dysfunctional culture of deadly gang wars and despair by shifting tenants\u2019 focus toward the goal of a post-public-housing future.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worked in places like Champaign County, Ill., which has transitioned 1,100 families out of housing assistance since 2014 using a similar program.<\/p>\n

\u201cHousing assistance was never meant to trap work-able individuals on government support their entire lives,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather, it should be a temporary foundation to launch into a life of self-sufficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York City would benefit if NYCHA took his words to heart.<\/p>\n

Howard Husock is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of \u201cThe Projects: A New History of Public Housing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico once claimed \u2018God is not a Christian,\u2019 defended abortion during 2023 sermon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump wants to give New York City the tools it needs to do something about its public-housing system’s dire problems. NYCHA is turning him down flat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nA hand up \u2014 not a handout \u2014 for public-housing tenants? 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