Family earning over $1 million living in NYC public housing

pix11.com ^ | november 25, 2015 | myles miller

[lowbridge]

PIX11 Investigates has found over 1,500 households earning six-figure salaries while living in New York City Housing Authority apartments.

"They should move them out," said Carmen Santiago, an Alfred E. Smith Houses resident.

Housing records obtained by PIX11 Investigates show a family reported making nearly a million dollars while paying only $1,574 in monthly rent for a three-bedroom apartment.

The household's annual income was $497,911 and the head of household owned real estate "that produced $790,534 in rental income between 2009 and 2013," according to a report by the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"If you're making more than the mayor of New York City, you should not be living in public housing," said Councilman Ritchie Torres, who is chairman of the Public Housing Committee.

The city housing authority isn't urging its deep-pocketed tenants to pack up and leave anytime soon.

"We've encouraged, as has HUD, mixed-income communities. It's a very small percentage," said Shola Olatoye, the chairwoman of NYCHA.

HUD has urged its public housing authorities to evict tenants who make too much money to qualify for government subsidies.

[wny]

This is routine....I lived down there 20 years ago and knew 3 couples making well into six figures living in rent controlled units.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Ah, but a tenured government-paid government university professor can live in a rent-controlled apartment. teaching about the evils of capitalism!

[Dallas59]

Well....Some people worth millions are cheap.

Hetty Green's stinginess was legendary. She was said never to turn on the heat or use hot water. She wore one old black dress and undergarments that she changed only after they had been worn out, did not wash her hands and rode in an old carriage. She ate mostly pies that cost fifteen cents. One tale claims that Green spent half a night searching her carriage for a lost stamp worth two cents. Another asserts that she instructed her laundress to wash only the dirtiest parts of her dresses (the hems) to save money on soap.[7]

Green conducted much of her business at the offices of the Seaboard National Bank in New York, surrounded by trunks and suitcases full of her papers; she did not want to pay rent for her own office. Later unfounded rumors claimed that she ate only oatmeal, heated on the office radiator. Possibly because of the stiff competition of the mostly male business environment and partly because of her usually dour dress (due mainly to frugality, but perhaps in part related to her Quaker upbringing), she was given the nickname, the "Witch of Wall Street".[2]

She was a successful businesswoman who dealt mainly in real estate, invested in railroads and mines, and lent money while acquiring numerous mortgages. The City of New York came to Green for loans to keep the city afloat on several occasions, most particularly during the Panic of 1907; she wrote a check for $1.1 million and took her payment in short-term revenue bonds. Keenly detail-oriented, she would travel thousands of miles alone—in an era when few women would dare travel unescorted—to collect a debt of a few hundred dollars.

[VanShuyten]

I bet there were several tenants in Cabrini Greens that made six-figure incomes,

selling crack and heroin to the other 10,000 residents.

[BitWielder1]

What does she mean move them out?
I thought the 0bama administration wanted diversity in housing.
Or does diversity only work in one direction?

[TexasGator]

credit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetty_Green

[SamAdams76]

I’m still amazed by New York City. All those people (millions!) and all those tall buildings. So many taxis that the streets look full of yellow bug from any one of the hundreds upon hundreds of skyscrapers. So many restaurants that you can choose a Manhattan block at random and never visit the same restaurant twice in a given month. An entire city under the city with multiple layers of subways and subterranean passages. It’s also more pedestrian friendly than any suburban town if you can believe that.

[proxy_user]

Actually, street level drug dealing does not pay all that well. The money has to be divided up among too many people, and most of them make little. Yes, they don’t pay income tax, but they still don’t make much more than people with a ho-hum regular job.

[BwanaNdege]

I bet there were several tenants in Cabrini Greens that made six-figure incomes, selling crack and heroin to the other 10,000 residents.

Back in 1970, Mrs BN & I briefly taught Sunday School in Caprini Green. Thankfully, we had a "formidable" black momma meet us at the curb and escort us into the complex.

Interesting place...

;-)

/s

[bajabaja]

Please define “friendly.”

I don’t think most NYers would say the subway is “friendly.”

[octex]

Very interesting. Thanks

I’m going to research more on her later.

[Tai_Chung]

How many “poor” families can pay $1,574/month on rent?
I think that is more of a middle class price range.

What is the market price for the 3 bedroom apartment in NYC?

[Joe 6-pack]

"If you're making more than the mayor of New York City, you should not be living in public housing," said Councilman Ritchie Torres...

Why not? The mayor of NYC lives in public housing...

[NonValueAdded]

Tell their neighbors in the project, then they will move if their sense of self-preservation is working.

[kearnyirish2]

“They should move them out,” said Carmen Santiago, an Alfred E. Smith Houses resident...”If you’re making more than the mayor of New York City, you should not be living in public housing,” said Councilman Ritchie Torres, who is chairman of the Public Housing Committee.

Freebies are only for “preferred minorities”, I guess. Gibsmedats/Da-me-esos...

[PrairieLady2]

Some public housing facilities are required by law to rent a percentage of the units for full rent, unsubsidised. That means that a percentage of the available apartments are open to anybody who wants to live there, as long as their income can support the rent.

Therefore it doesn’t matter how much money you make. If you like the place, and you want to live there for whatever reasons, and you can afford the rent, you can live there.

I think it’s part of the Equal Housing Opportunities that facilities are required to participate in. Non-discrimination.

There has to be so many handicapped units, so many regular units, so many family units, so many single units and every unit is subject to regular inspections.

Sometimes, those paying full, unsubsidised rent have different privileges than those who receive subsidy. For example, perhaps they are allowed to keep a pet, whereas the federally subsidized tenant can only have a pet if that pet is medically necessary. That tenant has to jump through hoops to prove it.

It’s just the way it is in some states.

[kearnyirish2]

I didn’t know that; thank you for clarifying. It actually makes sense in cities with CITY income taxes to entice potential taxpayers to live there - though I don’t know what would induce productive people to live in such close quarters to a number of gibsmedats. In NYC there were complaints recently that the public housing was ending up segregated (many Asians in one newer housing project, for example, while blacks were directed to others). I guess these cities know they can’t have populations that are 95% ungovernable, unassimilated minorities, and they need some productive people in their midst.