Tenants and local politicians are banding together to fight for affordable housing in a neighborhood where it might be lost.
The battle to protect the Section 8 Project-Based Voucher program, which subsidizes housing for low-income families, was at the forefront of a rally on 143rd Street at the end of the summer attended by multiple tenants associations as well as state and local representatives.
The Gloria Harding Apartments, a 113-unit building at 617 W. 143rd St. in West Harlem, is of particular interest to affordable housing advocates because its Section 8 contract is tied to the entire building rather than just its individual residents.
Tenants fear that, should the Gloria Harding Apartments opt out of the program, many would be forced to leave, and the building would undergo rapid gentrification. Residents whose Section 8 assistance is tied to the building can’t use the program once they no longer live there.
The length of time a building remains a full project-based Section 8 complex depends entirely on a Housing Assistance Payments contract with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a public agency. This agency can allocate up to 20 percent of the Section 8 budget to the project-based housing units for a maximum of 10 years followed by five-year renewal periods. The Gloria Harding Apartments may leave the program this year when their contract with HUD runs out and when both landlord Baruch Singer and the Denver-based Apartment Investment Management Company (AIMC) have the option of selling units at market rate should they become vacant.
“Singer is planning on letting the contract expire,” Maggie Russell-Ciardi, exectuive director of the housing advocacy group Tenants & Neighbors said. “That would be a horrible situation for [future] tenants.”
Tenants & Neighbors helped organize a group to help convince Singer to renew the contract. “He’s a pretty notorious landlord, but we’re hoping he’ll do the right thing,” she added.
Either that, or Singer should sell the building to someone who will, according to some activists.
Gloria Harding tenants also contacted the community development organization West Harlem Group Assistance to address the situation. “We’ve been organizing them and trying to address the landlord issues,” Donald Fulp, WHGA senior project manager explained. As the number of buildings participating in the Section 8 program decreases, the number of tenants unable to afford their homes increases. Plus, the availability of transferable vouchers per person in need decreases.
Singer did not return multiple calls for comment, and representatives from AIMC also declined to speak on Section 8 since they said they did not have direct jurisdiction over the future of the voucher program in this Harlem building.
Elbert Garcia, spokesperson for Congressman Charles Rangel (D-Harlem), said that he feared the loss of Section 8 units, but he added that Rangel would do everything in his power to preserve them. “We will do all that we can to ensure that Section 8 remains an option for all Americans, including fighting for more federal money to fund vouchers and project-based developments,” Garcia said. WHGA member Samelis Lopez said that this case was not unique and that she feared the loss of Section 8 is becoming a trend. She said,“It’s happening throughout the city.”
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