Make New York Post a Preferred Source Over 300 of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist comrades are calling on City Hall to halt a pivotal $1.2 billion public housing construction project – siding with tenants who want to stay put in their current homes, The Post has learned.
Four Democratic Socialist of America members penned a fiery draft resolution demanding Hizzoner put a stop to the imminent demolition and reconstruction of a Manhattan New York City Housing Authority complex known as Fulton-Elliot Chelsea Houses.
The proposal has since amassed 335 of the required 125 co-sponsors required to bring it to a vote at an organization-wide convention in November, making it among the most popular measures to be voted on by the left-wing group this year, a source close to the matter confirmed.
“The Chapter calls on Mayor Mamdani to halt this demolition, and, in doing so, we are uplifting the demands of the organized residents of Fulton and Elliot-Chelsea,” the nearly six-page document reads.
The resolution condemns Mamdani for forging ahead with the private-public partnership agreement between NYCHA and Related Companies through the cities RAD-PACT program “despite unambiguous protests from residents and community members,” according to a screenshot obtained by The Post.
The DSA resolution also slams the city for kicking off the “watershed demolition” in Chelsea – a tony Manhattan neighborhood – while other NYCHA complexes remain un-remedied in “much worse structural shape.”
The project would also force residents who currently reside in section 9 government housing to section 8 voucher-based housing.
Brooklyn Council member Chris Banks, chair of the council committee for public housing and a champion for saving section 9 housing, said he welcomes any group ready to support the cause.
“Folks are fighting for their lives and we welcome them taking this position in wanting to invest and preserve traditional public housing,” he said.
Despite the pushback, Mamdani doubled down on the project in statement Friday, which he touted as a way to remedy federal disinvestment from NYCHA – which now faces an over $80 billion need in capital repairs.
“The Mamdani Administration supports the redevelopment of Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses because NYCHA tenants deserve safe, healthy homes and the investment that has been denied to public housing for far too long,” said Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesman for the mayor in a statement.
“Too many leaders have walked away from public housing. We are not going to. We are stepping up to make the investments NYCHA tenants have been waiting for — and we believe this project should move forward.”
The future of Fulton-Elliot Chelsea houses has been a point of contention since the city entered into its agreement with Related Companies to demolish and rebuild the dilapidated complex under Mayor Eric Adams in 2021.
The project seeks to rebuild all campus’s current 2,056 apartments and add an additional 3,000 units of mixed-income and market-rate housing. The construction plan will temporarily force the relocation of 4% of all current tenants – including residents of a senior-only building.
But stubborn seniors in the 17-building complex are digging in their heels and refusing to relocate.
“I’m not going anywhere!” Doris Ruffin, 67, said in a recent interview. “They’re gonna have to knock this building down with me in it.”
The proposal is expected to be voted on at the DSA-NYC biennial convention on Nov. 4 – where delegates representing the DSA’s roughly 15,500 vote on various proposals for the group to endorse over the next two years.
