In the Projects: Rebuilding Social Housing in New York City

There is a shrinking stock of all types of affordable housing, resulting in the inflation of rent across all demographics. The rise in rent makes housing detrimentally unaffordable for people with extremely low incomes. Mayor Bill de Blasio also recognizes that there is an affordable housing crisis, promising to build over 200,000 units of affordable housing in the next ten years. However, his plan applies to new and privately-owned construction, not the massive public stock that the city already owns. The state of disrepair of public housing combined with generally underutilized sites in 1950’s projects makes the public portion of the affordable housing stock particularly opportunistic for future development. Our project will redevelop an existing public housing site to higher standards of building performance, density, and public programs. We will devise a development strategy for the reconstruction of our site, as well as a site strategy to meet the overall needs of the neighborhoods. We will use a faster-than-traditional construction methodology in order to not displace existing tenants for an extended period of time. Public housing can be efficient, strategic, and integral to the culture of the neighborhood.