Updating the perception of public housing

Public housing gets a bad rap. But that wasn’t always the case. When New York City’s Williamsburg Houses—the city’s second-ever public housing development—were built more than 85 years ago, people were excited to live there. Then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt even attended the property’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Over the years, the property fell into disrepair due to lack of funding. “Like public housing authorities across the country, we have experienced significant cuts to our capital budget since the 1980s,” said Jonathan Gouveia, Executive Vice President of Real Estate Development at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). “This has created a situation where our ability to maintain the buildings has been severely compromised.”

The image of poorly maintained properties is often what people associate with public housing. “For a long time, public housing was overlooked by the city or viewed in a negative light,” said Matt Rooney, CEO and Principal of MDG Design & Construction.

But that’s beginning to change. “There’s a lot of activity now in public housing and a lot of excitement around its possibilities,” Rooney said. And the Williamsburg Houses community is proof.

Learn more about the public housing community’s evolution and how JPMorganChase Community Development Real Estate and Historic Tax Credit equity (HTC) contributed to it.

The historic public housing community

Williamsburg Houses is a NYCHA complex in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which spans more than 23 acres and includes 1,620 units across 20 four-story buildings and one community center. Built in 1938 and originally called the Ten Eyck Houses, the community is one of the earliest housing developments in the country.

Richmond Shreve, one of the architects behind the Empire State Building, and William Lescaze, an expert in the International Style of architecture, designed the project. The housing community is an official New York City Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

During the 36-month construction phase, extensive renovations included:

• Removing environmental hazards including lead, mold and asbestos
• Adding ramps in line with original design elements to provide accessibility for residents with mobility challenges
• Updating each apartment with new kitchens and bathrooms
• Installing new windows to preserve the building’s façade
• Free Wi-Fi access in every apartment

Williamsburg Houses’ critical stakeholders

“I think it’s important to have all of these different partnerships to provide affordable housing—I don’t think there’s one magic bullet,” said Susan Camerata, Principal and Chief Financial Officer of Wavecrest Management.

The key stakeholders on the Williamsburg Houses project include:

• New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA): The largest public housing agency in North America houses 1 in 17 New Yorkers. Many of these properties are at least 50 years old and in need of updating, making them prime candidates for HTC.
• RDC Development: Mission-oriented, for-profit developer MDG Design and Construction worked with Wavecrest Management, a full-service management company focused on affordable housing, to form RDC and take on large NYCHA sites that need significant renovations. Williamsburg Houses marks RDC’s third Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) project under the Permanent Affordable Housing Commitment Together (PACT) program, totaling 4,098 units.
• JPMorganChase Community Development Banking: The firm made a $140.1 million Federal and New York State Historic Tax Credit equity investment for the project. The firm also provided $225 million of a $338 million participant loan to Williamsburg Housing’s PACT with New York City Housing Development Corporation.

“I think what we’ve set up here is a program that really leverages the strengths of each of the different parties,” Gouveia said. “NYCHA is a great subsidy administrator, a great oversight entity. And the private sector does a fantastic job of doing the renovations and the property management.”

Keys to successful renovations

The Williamsburg Houses needed significant renovation work. “We had a lot of issues that require a larger rehabilitation than most properties are used to,” Rooney said. “This isn’t a nice coat of paint or new cabinets. This is getting behind the walls, opening things up and making sure these buildings are basically brand-new.”

The project involved complex financing structures, three years of construction and significant collaboration and coordination. It wouldn’t have been successful without:

• PACT program: The PACT program is New York City’s implementation of the federal RAD program. RAD allows public housing sites to get a Section 8 contract and leverage those funds to make renovations, improve property management and expand on-site social services.
• HTC: “We would not be able to get the scope that we need at Williamsburg Houses to address the lead abatement, to address all of the aging issues of this site, without Historic Tax Credit,” Gouveia said. Renovating older public housing properties across the city can be expensive—each community’s rehab can cost hundreds of millions of dollars—which is why NYCHA aims to use HTC to help fund renovations in the pipeline.

Most important was engaging the more than 3,000 residents at Williamsburg Houses.

Many residents have lived in the community for generations. The three-year construction process required residents to move twice—from their original, permanent apartment to a temporary unit and back. At no cost to the residents, Wavecrest Management handled all the temporary moves.

“The RDC team has done a fantastic job of moving people around in a way that is seamless and limits disruptions as much as possible,” Gouveia said. “Residents could stay on the campus, and they would continue to go to their schools, their doctors and shop at their same grocery stores, then come back to their existing apartment when it’s completely renovated.”

Apartment updates also involved residents. Prior to making renovations, for example, residents could visit an on-site design center to select materials and finishes for their apartments. Likewise, the team added washer-dryer hookups after hearing residents’ needs.

Residents also offered input on shared amenities, requesting a garden, specific fountains for the playground and basketball courts.

The three courts serve as a community gathering place and feature a “Reach for the stars” tripartite mural with poems, inspirational sayings, symbols and patterns. The mural won the Abbey Mural Prize administered by the National Academy of Design. MDG and other private sources provided additional funding.

“The project was born from my friendship with Lavonne McLamb, the tenant association president of Williamsburg Houses,” said muralist Tamara Gayer.

A model for the future

The Williamsburg Houses’ revitalized, modernized buildings are popular not only among residents but neighbors, too.

“The renovation has really changed perception of public housing in the area,” Camerata said. “Neighbors see this as something positive for the area.”

That bodes well for the future. “NYCHA currently has about 40,000 apartments in various stages of development, so we’re making fantastic progress,” Gouveia said. “We’re addressing billions of dollars’ worth of backlog with the PACT and HTC programs.”

“We’re not just changing the buildings, but we are bringing enhanced property management, social services, and ensuring that residents get a level of service and an experience they haven’t had in decades,” he said. “We’re fundamentally changing lives.”