As renovations get underway at a Staten island public housing complex that was recently turned over to private managers, some tenants say they’re experiencing a long-forgotten feeling: optimism.
Retired sailor Cruz Ruiz, 90, is one of about 1,300 tenants living in the West Brighton Houses, a mix of eight-story towers and single-story apartment buildings known as bungalows, which are unique structures in New York City’s massive public housing system. Ruiz, lives in one of the bungalows and said he has dealt with chronic heat and hot water problems for 15 years.
But construction crews were on the grounds earlier this month, gut-renovating several units, repairing rooftops and cleaning the pathways.
“We needed that change for a long time,” Ruiz said.
West Brighton is the latest New York City Housing Authority development — and the first on Staten Island — to enter the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together, or PACT, program. Under the PACT program, NYCHA turns over operations, management and rent collection to private companies while changing the source of federal funding for each apartment.
NYCHA and developer BFC Partners secured $332 million in loans in June to begin work at the West Brighton Houses, which they say will be completed in about two years.
Inside his living room, Ruiz paged through a pamphlet with renderings of what the units will look like once the renovations are complete. BFC and management company Pinnacle City Living plan to temporarily move Ruiz into a vacant unit in one of the high-rise buildings while they check for lead and asbestos, and renovate his kitchen and bathroom.
“I’m happy about it because they’re going to remodel the whole thing inside,” Ruiz told Gothamist. “This is my last stop here. I ain’t going nowhere.”
Cruz Ruiz, 90, says he’ll be temporarily moved into an apartment in one of the high rise towers while his bungalow is renovated.
Photo by David Brand
Two dozen other bungalows have been vacant and boarded up since 2002. They’re eyesores that take a psychological toll on residents, Cruz said.
Tenants living in the towers in the central and northern sections of the campus said they’ve also been plagued by severe water damage to their walls and ceilings, chronic elevator problems and hot water outages. NYCHA estimated the cost of fixing the apartments, buildings and grounds would exceed $100 million, money the agency said it didn’t have after decades of federal disinvestment.
“What ended up happening over time was that the deterioration just built up,” said Jonathan Gouveia, NYCHA’s executive vice president for real estate.
After a yearslong community engagement process, NYCHA turned the complex over to BFC and Pinnacle in late June.
Resident Association President Shekina Butler said she welcomes the new arrangement and ticked off a list of problems that needed fixing around the sprawling complex, including old electrical wiring, backed up plumbing, caved-in ceilings and elevator outages.
“There was no work being done on campus. Absolutely nothing,” Butler said. “So to have all these people here, every day, completing job after job after job, it is amazing.”
Two dozen bungalows on the West Brighton Houses grounds have been sitting empty and boarded up since 2002, residents said.
Photo by David Brand
But switching over public housing operations to private firms remains controversial.
Critics of the program say putting public housing in the hands of profit-driven companies with limited oversight doesn’t automatically lead to improvements. The developments that enter into the PACT program aren’t subject to the same level of public reporting as traditional public housing, making it harder to identify problems and hold companies accountable.
“The assumption here is that the private market and private management solves all problems,” Councilmember Alexa Avilés, past chair of the public housing committee, told Gothamist in May. “This is still public housing and we cannot relegate our responsibility for oversight to make sure that tenants receive dignified services and live in dignified homes.”
Resident Association President Shekina Butler says tenants have had to contend with faulty wiring, bad pipes, caving ceilings and elevator outages.
Photo by David Brand
Over the past year, NYCHA has allowed tenants at other campuses to vote on whether they want to enter PACT, keep the status quo or opt into a new, publicly controlled program called the Preservation Trust.
Tenants at some PACT developments, including several who testified at a Council oversight hearing in April, have complained about continued problems, along with more aggressive management practices.
As Gothamist first reported, Pinnacle City Living was fired by a developer at another public housing complex in Brooklyn late last year. The developer at the Brooklyn complex said Pinnacle failed to control costs and put housing vouchers in jeopardy.
A Pinnacle spokesperson disputed those claims, and NYCHA has stood by the management company.
“Sometimes business relationships don’t work out,” said Gouveia, the NYCHA vice president. “It doesn’t mean that there was a big problem behind it.”
Pinnacle declined to comment for this story.
BFC Partners Principal Joseph Ferrara said his company — which built Staten Island’s Empire Outlets shopping mall and redeveloped the Bedford Union Armory into a fitness center — is up to the task of handling the renovations. Ferrara said the construction and maintenance work have been well received by tenants over the past two months.
“The upgrades and improvements that are being made on this site are key to really improving the quality of life to all that call West Brighton home,” Ferrara said in a statement.
Under the final plan, the developers will reopen 12 of the vacant bungalows and turn 12 others into a new senior center. The plans also include lead and asbestos removal, complete kitchen and bathroom renovations, and “refurbished” heat and hot water systems for each building.
Scott Ross, a union construction worker who lives in one of the high rises, said he is glad to see the work getting done. He now wants his neighbors to participate in the rebuilding of their homes.
“These guys are working hard,” Ross said. “I hope there are opportunities for people here to work, to do construction, too.”