Why NYC’s Move to Privatize Public Housing Could Impact the Rest of the Country
Notes from America with Kai Wright
WNYC Studios
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2023
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Fanta Kaba was growing up, her family moved around a lot: Harlem, Queens, the Bronx, even North Carolina for a while. But when they moved into public housing, they finally found stability. Now, a controversial plan is changing the way public housing operates — and a lot of residents are scared about the future of their homes.
On this week’s show, Fanta — a reporter for WNYC’s Radio Rookies — speaks with residents, organizers and officials as she tries to find out what this program means for families like hers. Then Kai is joined by Tatyana Turner, an award-winning journalist covering housing for City Limits, to speak about the changes to NYCHA, New York City’s Housing Authority, and what it could mean for public housing programs around the country.
This story was made in collaboration with WNYC’s Radio Rookies program. Radio Rookies is supported in part by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Epstein Teicher Philanthropies, the Margaret Neubart Foundation, and The Pinkerton Foundation.
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Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Why do you continue to show up and fight for public housing? I think that affordable and public housing are essential to the stability of many families in the survival of the cities. |
| 0:15.2 | Because I need a roof over my head and I have no other family to go to. |
| 0:20.4 | What did nature mean to you and your family? |
| 0:22.4 | It meant a home, you know, like we had been living there for 20 plus years. |
| 0:27.0 | So this was a privilege. |
| 0:28.0 | Nysa was a privilege for us. |
| 0:29.0 | I think it's one of the best laws ever written in the entire country in the history of our country |
| 0:34.4 | because it is so aggressive and it is so progressive. |
| 0:37.5 | You have eviction protection, you have a right to mediation, you have a right to legal resources, but for 30 years they've abandoned it and now |
| 0:47.9 | it's at the point where it is a failure. It's notes from America. I'm Kai Wright. Welcome to the show. |
| 1:07.0 | It's notes from America. I'm Kai Wright. Welcome to the show. |
| 1:15.0 | We are thinking this week about home. |
| 1:19.0 | The place where you go for comfort and safety, |
| 1:22.0 | where you settle down and unwind, maybe share holiday time off with |
| 1:25.6 | your loved ones, how much should that cost us? And how do we make it available to everybody? Because right right now it's not something you can |
| 1:34.2 | take for granted. There's an official measure that determines when you can't |
| 1:38.6 | afford the place you call home. Whether you rent or pay a mortgage, if you have to spend more than 30% of your income on housing, |
| 1:46.5 | the federal government considers you cost burdened and therefore at risk of losing your home. |
| 1:52.1 | Right now, a record high number of Americans fit this |
| 1:55.6 | definition more than 21 million households. Nearly 12 million renters |
| 1:59.8 | spend more than half of their income on housing. |
| 2:03.0 | And we wonder why so many people feel so insecure about money. |
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