There is a battle brewing in the buildings run by the New York City Housing Authority, or as New Yorkers call them, “the projects.” As a result of the federal budget cuts, agreed upon by both Republican and Democratic politicians, the largest public housing system in the country will lose $208 million dollars in federal funds.
Over 1,200 families in the city could lose their Section 8 vouchers, and many more of the 600,000 families in the NYCHA system may face an immediate $57 per month rent increase.
To qualify for Section 8 assistance, a family of four cannot earn more than $38,400. Families with Section 8 do not have savings, or an extra $57 lying around. Although the capitalist class—the banks, corporations, real estate developers and politicians caused this economic crisis, they are making the poor pay up to cover the budget cuts.
The New York City government has kicked in less than a quarter of what the federal government is taking out of the city’s public housing. This amount will prevent some layoffs and the closure of senior centers. But again, the poorest NYC residents are being left out in the cold—and for thousands, quite literally.
There is still talk of cutting hundreds of NYCHA worker positions and increasing furloughs on a good portion of the remaining workforce. This is basically an unpaid forced leave of absence for the workers, which will shrink their paychecks and cut vital services to residents. There are over 10,000 maintenance request that have not even been scheduled until 2014. Teamsters Union Local 237, which represents these workers, is fighting back and needs community support in defense of their jobs.
Sequester: same old cuts, fancier new name
The “sequester” refers to the automatic budget cuts taking place all across government. Those in Washington would like us to believe that this is “shared sacrifice.” But we in working-class and poor communities face a much harsher reality.
The billionaires on Wall Street are actually making record profits, while unemployment and underemployment are rampant for the rest of us. And of course, they have hundreds of billions of dollars to throw into the military-industrial complex, which carries out illegal wars and occupations around the world, while making private “defense” corporations and banks rich.
The attacks on social programs like Section 8 are part of a larger plan to eliminate government services and open up new opportunities for private profit. It is just a new form of the rich getting richer on the backs of the poor and working people.
NYCHA’s $200 million budget cut and the fight against NYC’s poor
The NYCHA system, although it is public housing, gives $70 million per year to the New York Police Department for “special monitoring.” In other words, while NYC residents’ taxes already pay for the enormous police department, NYCHA residents’ rents pay extra for extra police!
Because it is public housing, NYPD cops treat these NYCHA developments the same way they do public streets and parks, going into apartment buildings as they please, stopping and frisking people in hallways, monitoring them 24-7 and often issuing bogus trespassing tickets. This whole $70 million deal with the NYPD must be eliminated, and the special policing apparatus in public housing abolished.
In New York City, over 200,000 affordable housing units were lost between 2002 and 2008 alone. Some 60 percent of the city’s population cannot afford market rate for a typical two-bedroom apartment, which is about $1,474 per month, according to the city’s Department of Housing and Urban Development.
As for the 1,200 families to be “removed” from the Section 8 housing program, where are these families to go? The shelter system is overstretched as it is, and has faced its own cuts.
At first, the NYCHA system’s senior centers and youth community centers were at risk of being cut altogether. This decision was reversed in the past week, but it shows the absolute cold-heartedness of the capitalist politicians and the potential threats to such vital services in the future. As usual, New York City’s rulers first tried to scare people with terrible cuts so that they are more likely to accept slightly less terrible ones a few weeks later. They have used this tactic again and again, like when they raised MetroCard transit fares.
Leasing of public land
The cuts are just one part of the attack on public housing. The NYCHA managers and Mayor Bloomberg are preparing to lease NYCHA’s public land to make room for the development of high-rise luxury buildings. This land currently holds parking lots for residents and local community centers, among other services.
They say this will help raise money to “upgrade” the nearly bankrupt housing system. In reality, it is just another form of displacement and gentrification.
The addition of 50-story luxury housing developments in the middle of oppressed neighborhoods will diminish the living standards of existing residents, cutting services while blocking air and sunlight. It will provide little to no affordable housing. This plan will likely come with a new infusion of police officers to monitor existing residents’ every move, and new business establishments will spring up that only serve the upper-class new residents.
How do we organize to stop these cuts to our vital services?
There is no question that these cuts will only further deepen the crisis for poor and working people. The only question is what we will do. It is clear we need to develop a fight-back movement to push back against these criminal attacks against our people, to expand NYCHA services, lower rents and make housing a right. If asked, the vast majority of the population would oppose the “solution” to the budget that makes poor people pay more, and kicks thousands onto the streets. The gutting of public housing has been decided by a tiny group of elite politicians, banks and real estate developers against the will of the people. This, therefore, is a violation of the concept of democracy, which means majority rule.
The attack on necessary housing programs for poor and working people shows that we are actually living under a dictatorship of the rich. Our only recourse is to do what the people are doing worldwide against such dictatorships: to organize, rise up and overthrow them.
Poor and working people cannot accept a system that plans in its budget to take 70,000 children nationwide out of the Head Start program, to eliminate 15,000 meals to seniors in Miami, and to cut 12 percent of salaries of public defenders. No, we must show that we have the power. We have the power at our jobs, when we refuse to work, in our buildings, when we organize and refuse to pay rent hikes, and when we march in the streets.
Community-based and housing organizations are preparing a fight to stop the planned cuts to Section 8, and the sale of public land to luxury condominiums. To win this fight, the city’s entire working class must be mobilized. The Party for Socialism and Liberation will be organizing around this and calls on all its supporters and people of conscience across the city to join in the fight to defend public housing and stop the real estate tycoons in their tracks.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the public land would be sold, instead of leased, to private real estate developers.
