“We are standing with the brave families who are resisting the pressure and refusing to leave their homes,” Elliott-Chelsea Houses resident Celines Miranda told a group of about 150 protesters outside 401-419 West 19th St. in Chelsea March 14.

The building, also known as Fulton 11, is one of the first two slated to be demolished under the New York City Housing Authority’s plan to privatize the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea public-housing developments. Under the plan, the buildings would be turned over to two private developers, the Related Companies and Essence Development, and their more than 2,000 apartments torn down and replaced with a mix of 3,500 luxury apartments, 1,000 units of high-rent “affordable housing,” and Section 8 apartments to house the current residents.

The two projects would be the first ones completely demolished under NYCHA’s Rental Assistance Demonstration/Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (RAD/PACT) program. Over the past decade, NYCHA has privatized about one-seventh of the 178,000 apartments it owns.

“If we allow them to demolish these buildings, it will become the blueprint for the city,” Marquis Jenkins, the protest’s MC, warned the crowd of public-housing tenants, neighborhood residents, Democratic candidates campaigning, communist activists, and a few housing activists from as far as Crown Heights and Jamaica.

 A state Appellate Division judge last month temporarily blocked NYCHA’s plans to close the deal with Related and Essence. A five-judge panel is currently reviewing that ruling, John Low-Beer, a lawyer representing residents opposed to the deal, told Work-Bites.

Meanwhile, only six of the 36 apartments in Fulton 11 are still occupied. Residents have received multiple notices warning that they had 90, 60, and then 30 days to leave before they would be evicted.

“They are putting the full press on these tenants,” Elliott-Chelsea resident association leader Renee Keitt said.

Jonathan Santiago, one of the remaining Fulton 11 residents, told the crowd that he and his mother had received a visit in December from Deputy Mayor of Housing Leila Bozorg, who was asking “why we haven’t signed the PACT deal.” The building’s incinerator has been shut down, he added.

Another resident, Maria Ayala, speaking in Spanish through a translator, said that she was told to go to the office and sign a new lease. She refused. Her family was also shown another apartment in poor condition and told if they didn’t accept it they’d be taken to court, she added.

NYCHA and representatives of the developers, Celines Miranda said, have been telling tenants “this is going to happen anyway, so you might as well sign and leave now.”

That’s illegal harassment, Thomas Hillgardner, another lawyer representing the tenants, told Work-Bites. He is planning to file harassment lawsuits on behalf of residents of both Fulton 11 and the Chelsea Addition senior-housing building, the other one facing demolition.

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