As revealed by Fight For NYCHA, Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) has been pressuring fellow Democrats to vote to approve the Blueprint scheme that will convert all non-RAD/PACT public housing apartments into a new entity that will effectively bring about the end of all Section 9 public housing in New York City.
A group of New York State legislators, which appears to include State Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Bushwick), State Sen. Jabari Brisport (D-Bed-Stuy), Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes (D-Red Hook), and notable DSA member Cea Weaver, negotiated over the minutiae of the legislation, giving the impression that they would vote to approve or support the Blueprint with minor conditions.
Under the Blueprint scheme, Mayor de Blasio would transfer all public housing apartments not meant for RAD/PACT to a new creature of Albany that would have no political accountability for bureaucratic failure.
U.S. District Court Judge William Pauley III has ruled that public housing residents, who get converted to Section 8 vouchers, as contemplated by the Blueprint scheme, could legally receive separate but unequal rights. Under the Blueprint, for example, Section 8 residents would not receive any protections offered by the Revised Consent Decree in the Baez class action lawsuit.
The Parties to the Baez litigation owe Judge Pauley a status report by June 14. Before NYCHA must return to Court, Mayor de Blasio has been strong-arming his Albany co-conspirators to vote to approve the Blueprint on or by June 10, so that, once the Parties report-back to Judge Pauley, they can inform His Honour that Albany has approved the eventual end to Section 9 housing.
An end to Section 9 housing would be the death knell to the New Deal promise to public housing.
An estimated 600,000 individuals live in apartments owned and operated by NYCHA. Ending Section 9 housing would be the next step in the Government’s wholesale abandonment of its obligations to public housing residents, something that Conservatives have long sought.
Mayor de Blasio couldn’t be able to bring about an end to NYCHA’s New Deal promise without the help of the DSA wing of Albany Legislators and other collaborators. Corruption of this scale takes a lot of work and coördination. Not even Mayor de Blasio’s reported issues over how he appears to use Government approvals for real estate contracts in order to fundraise for his various political committees have proved to be a concern for his allies. Mayor de Blasio was left unindicted following the completion of a wide-ranging, Federal corruption investigation into his campaign finance activities.
The sell-out of NYCHA public housing by Mayor de Blasio and his allies in the DSA wing of the Democratic Party comes as Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) has proposed to improve H.R. 235 to fully-fund the backlog of capital repairs to the entire Nation’s public housing stock.
Certain participants in the real estate development industry are allegedly demanding that Mayor de Blasio and other Electeds advance the approval of major real estate development projects, including the disposition of strategic public assets, before the election of the next class of Municipal Legislators poses problems for the large-scale real estate developers.