Over the years I have returned repeatedly to the subject of the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA.  Begun with great optimism prior to World War II, NYCHA expanded rapidly in the 1960s and 70s, until it housed around 500,000 people.  The economic model was always pure unmodified socialism — the government owns everything, rents are tied to income (“to each according to his needs”), and any shortfalls in paying costs fall on the taxpayers.  But after all, we will save oodles of money because there will be no profits for the evil developers.  For a few of my prior posts, see here, here and here

The socialist economic model always lacked any mechanism to renew the capital investment in the buildings as they aged.  After 2000, buildings were turning 30, 40 and even 50 years old.  Beginning in the 2010s, NYCHA started regularly announcing large sums of money that it claimed it needed urgently for major repairs to these buildings.  These numbers started at $17 billion in 2015, but escalated rapidly, first to $25 billion, and then to $32 billion in 2021.  In 2023 there was a new “audit,” and suddenly the number became $78 billion.  In the New York Post article at that last link, Mayor Adams is quotes as saying “[O]nly the federal government can provide the level of funding needed to overcome decades of disinvestment in the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who call public housing home.”  

I don’t think that will happen in the Trump administration.

So at this point there is only one remotely feasible way forward for NYCHA, which is privatization in some form or another.  I have repeatedly proposed the most obvious and workable route: give the buildings to the residents.  No charge.  I’d even be OK with a relatively slow real estate tax phase-in.  Once they own the buildings, the residents can, if they wish, use their equity to borrow to make the needed improvements.  But honestly, in most cases, the buildings are in such bad shape that the residents/new owners will be smarter to sell, take the money, and move somewhere else.  In the case of many buildings which now find themselves in desirable neighborhoods, the residents will become millionaires.  Meanwhile, the buyers in all likelihood would knock the buildings down and build something much better.