Written by: Jesse Lin

After living in the same Chelsea public housing project for over twenty years, Artie Romero will have to temporarily move out when his apartment is demolished. 

He just doesn’t know when. 

“I’m left in the middle,” said Romero earlier this September. “Management is saying one thing and the developers are saying another. What I’m really confused about is when they’re gonna move these people. It’s a lot of families and they don’t have a lot of time,” he said. 

Residents of Fulton Elliott-Chelsea, the largest affordable housing development in the neighborhood, voted in a non-binding survey in the spring to build the first mixed-income apartments in New York City public housing history. 3,200 new units will replace the aging housing project over the next six years. 

But the developers slated for the job, Essence Development and Related Companies, haven’t been clear to either residents or local government officials on the redevelopment’s timeline. This has sparked residents’ protests, like the latest one outside of a Manhattan Community Board 4 (MCB4) meeting on September 6th. 

Most recently, the Architect’s Newspaper reported that the Fulton Elliott-Chelsea (FEC) Tenants Against Demolition group, largely made up of residents opposing redevelopment, demanded that MCB4 publicly oppose the demolition and redevelopment plans. 

Last June, Jamar Adams, founder of Essence Development, announced to residents that relocation would begin in October or November of this year following federal approval. 

Just two weeks later, Jonathan Gouveia, NYCHA Executive Vice President of Real Estate Development, said to Manhattan Community Board 4 that relocation would begin in March 2024. 

Despite repeated requests since then, Jesse Bodine, district manager of Manhattan Community Board 4, has not gotten updates from the developers or NYCHA. “We’re working on it,” is the response they gave to the community board’s inquiries, Bodine said. 

“It is not typical of a project this size to have so many questions still unanswered,” Bodine continued.

About the survey, Resident Romero says that the majority of the people he associates with in the building didn’t receive it. At least ten more residents went through the same experience.

Conducted between March and May this year, the developers who administered the survey expected it to be a public housing win. 

“Usually, housing authorities partner with the developer to make decisions,” and the residents are rarely involved, says Sarah Watson, deputy director of the New York Citizens Housing and Planning Council, a research and housing advocacy organization tasked with administering the survey and tabulating the results. 

At Fulton Houses, the president of the tenant association Miguel Acevedo professed that residents, “were given every opportunity to go downstairs and vote.” 

“We explained it in every single language: Spanish, Mandarin, Russian. We posted on people’s doors, we mailed brochures to them,” he declared. 

The need to explain the survey in multiple languages is due to Fulton Elliott-Chelsea’s extensive diversity. Of the nearly 5,000 people living in the development, 16% are Black, nearly 28% identify as Asian, and a third are Latinx, according to Social Explorer, a site that uses census data to present information about U.S. neighborhoods. Additionally, over half of households in the housing project are composed of families, of which 18% live below the poverty level in one of Manhattan’s costliest neighborhoods.

Redevelopment leaders claim to respect the residents’ agency by co-designing a survey with tenant leaders like Acevedo. The goal being to  “assess residents’ general sentiments” toward redevelopment, according to Watson. Developers also herald  “collaboration… clear and consistent communication, and responsive service as a hallmark of our approach,” according to the Fulton Elliott-Chelsea website.

Essence Development and Related Companies did not respond to multiple inquiries into the survey or the timeline for redevelopment. NYCHA did not respond in time to questions around the conduct of the survey.

Acevedo attributes the skepticism and confusion to “naysayers.”

“People are telling residents they’re going to Queens,” Acevedo declared. “No, they’re staying in Chelsea, over my dead body.”

But many residents, like Romero, remain unconvinced the developers will keep their promise guaranteeing all current residents new apartments once construction is done. 

For Romero, “It’s like ‘we’re gonna give you a brand new car but not the keys yet.’”