Former state senator sues to block NYCHA’s Chelsea housing redevelopment
Crains, AARON ELSTEIN, January 6, 2026
A former state lawmaker claims the New York City Housing Authority’s plan to have a private developer raze and rebuild a public housing complex in Chelsea is illegal.
In a lawsuit, former state Sen. Thomas Duane argued that NYCHA’s proposal to lease the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses to Related Cos. for 99 years would violate a state law adopted in 2010 that requires the housing authority to “at all times” retain ownership and control of 15 of its more than 300 developments, including the Chelsea complex located between Hudson Yards and the Meatpacking District.
Duane’s suit was filed in New York State Supreme Court on Dec. 22, the same day the Public Authorities Control Board, a panel staffed by four state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget director, gave the green light to redevelop the first apartment tower in the Chelsea housing complex. Each new apartment is expected to cost a hefty $1.2 million to build.
Civic leaders hope the Chelsea redevelopment project will serve as a model for rehabilitating public housing across the city. NYCHA, the nation’s largest public-housing authority with nearly 180,000 apartments, estimates its properties need nearly $80 billion worth of work after decades of neglect. Under its agreement with Related, the developer of Hudson Yards would demolish and replace the Chelsea complex’s 2,056 NYCHA apartments while adding 1,000 affordable and 2,500 market-rate units on blocks near the High Line.
Some residents of Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea oppose the project, including a group of around 20 senior citizens, many in their 80s, who were sued by NYCHA in state court for refusing to move out. NYCHA withdrew the lawsuits on Dec. 11, according to tenant attorney John Low-Beer. Tenants say they still face pressure to move.
Duane, who represented the neighborhood in the state senate for 14 years through 2012, joined the new lawsuit brought by 10 residents and the Midtown South Community Council, a tenant-rights group.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that the city of New York would sell its land and low-income housing to a private developer,” Duane said in a statement. “Demolition always leads to displacement. So many of our neighbors and friends will lose the strong tenant protections they now have.”
NYCHA declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Duane’s suit cites a 2024 study by the New York City Comptroller’s office that he said shows that privatizing public housing leads to worse outcomes for some tenants. Eviction rates in such apartments are 0.57%, the report said, compared to 0.12% at conventional NYCHA housing. The suit also cited a 2022 report by Human Rights Watch that said public-housing tenants in privatized NYCHA apartments suffer from “inadequate government oversight,” including the loss of a federal monitor.
In 2018, NYCHA agreed to be overseen by a federal monitor as part of a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department. The feds found that NYCHA didn’t conduct lead inspections in thousands of apartments between 2012 and 2016 and filed false paperwork saying it had.
In August, NYCHA released a request for expressions of interest, asking real estate firms to propose city- and privately-owned sites where the agency could work with them to build new residential projects or convert existing structures into housing. The initiative aims to build on prior agency endeavors such as the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together program, which puts NYCHA developments under private management, and the preservation trust, which the state passed in 2022 to help fund much-needed repairs of public housing units.
The effort would have private real estate firms take advantage of NYCHA assets such as undeveloped land and unused development rights to build more housing, particularly for low-income New Yorkers.
Source: Crains