Unpacking the Contested State of Public Housing in New York City

Author

Kristen Hackett, The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

6-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Psychology

Advisor

Susan Saegert

Committee Members

Michelle Fine

Brett Stoudt

Subject Categories

Human Geography | Other Psychology

Keywords

public housing, privatization, housing policy, racial capitalism, activist scholarship, new york city, neoliberalization

Abstract

In recent years, the New York City Housing Authority has announced and pursued two key plans for public housing that they promise will address the twin problems of disinvestment and disrepair that have been deepening since the turn of the century. In tandem with these announcements and pursuits, opposition from public housing residents has swelled and led to the formation of new grassroots groups that not only reject these directions, but also advocate alternatives. This dissertation delves into the details of these plans, the contestations they've inspired, and the futures they engender, with attention to the consequences of these changes for existing residents, housing landscapes, our housing system, and political and economic inequality.

This investigation begins by focusing on the competing narratives of public officials and agencies and community-based groups, or dominant narratives and counternarratives of struggle. I bring these perspectives into dialogue around two questions - (1) how do we characterize the present moment in public housing and how and why have we arrived here, and (2) what are the changes and consequences that are introduced by the state-led plans for public housing today. In answering these questions, this analysis employs interpretive policy analysis to interrogate public documents and recorded presentations that were circulated by each group to inform public discussion of these plans. This inquiry highlights the limitations of the state's narrative and called for greater inquiry into the technical changes and consequences called for by the plans.

This led to two additional inquiries into (1) the financial dealings undergirding one of the key plans, and (2) the institutional reworking called for by the other. These critical analyses confirm and extend our understanding of the concerns residents were raising. More specifically, these inquiries highlight how rights, risks, and security are reworked and institutionalized in favor of private interests at the behest of residents. These investigations were prefaced with a historical inquiry into a half century policy shift in low-income housing policy that has been creating housing scarcity for low-income households while routing wealth upwards and demonstrates how these changes to public housing in New York City today perpetuate this trajectory.

Taken together, this dissertation speaks to the double movement of technical changes and official dominant rhetoric that pursue capitalocentric futures in the present. Part of the rhetorical framing is the delegitimization and silencing of community-based opposition. However, when we recenter the scope and take these voices and their alternative narratives and dreams seriously, a powerful intimate knowingness capable of situating and assessing present day policy and political conditions in longer historical timelines is revealed. For me, this research led to questions about what my role as a person of European-descent could and should be, as a scholar and as a researcher and as a person concerned with social justice. These reflections led to my articulation of comrade scholarship, or a way of doing research in community, that sits on the shelf alongside other approaches to activist scholarship.

Recommended Citation

Hackett, Kristen, "Unpacking the Contested State of Public Housing in New York City" (2024). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5818