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Mamdani’s redevelopment plan for NYCHA complex in Chelsea spills into DSA
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Nov 11, 2026 at 6:00 a.m. ET
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Rhiannon Rashidi / Gothamist
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Nov 11, 2026 at 6:00 a.m. ET
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The fight over the redevelopment of a NYCHA complex in Chelsea is playing out inside Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s political machine, pitting holdout tenants and leftwing democratic socialists against allies of the mayor and pro-housing advocates.
Tenant activists at Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses have joined the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, arguing that the redevelopment of their homes amounts to privatization of public housing. The plan would allow private developers to build mixed-income housing on the NYCHA property in exchange for replacing roughly 2,000 units of public housing.
Mamdani and other high-profile DSA members in his administration counter that the aging buildings are in such bad condition that a teardown is cheaper than renovations. The $1.2 billion project could serve as a model for rebuilding other NYCHA complexes.
The escalating conflict has created uncomfortable optics for the mayor. The newly minted DSA members accuse Mamdani, who campaigned as a champion of working class New Yorkers fighting wealthy interests, of abandoning his values.
“What's happening here doesn't fall under socialist principles,” said Celines Miranda, a 51-year-old tenant activist who grew up in an apartment at the Elliot-Chelsea House. “If you're a socialist, then you support socialist housing.”
“We have no interest in being privatized. We have no interest in being demolished,” she added.
Jackie Lara and Savasiah Gardner stand in front of the Chelsea-Elliott Houses.
Elizabeth Kim / Gothamist
Cea Weaver, who leads the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, said the tenant activists do not represent the broader opinion of residents.
“Just as everybody in DSA does not agree, everybody who lives on the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea campuses do not agree,” Weaver said. “My experience working for the mayor and being on the ground in this project over the last few months has been that there are many, many tenants who are very eager for this to move forward.”
Miranda rejected the notion that a new building built by a private developer is actually an upgrade.
“I don't want the fake Gucci bag just because it glitters and it looks pretty,” she said.
On Saturday, Miranda will join two fellow tenant activists at a DSA convention where members will decide whether to take a formal stance against the city’s plan for the NYCHA properties.
The debate centers on ideological questions about what constitutes public housing, and what a progressive city can and should do to fix NYCHA with dwindling federal funding.
Nicholas Bloom, a Hunter professor who has written about the history of NYCHA, said leftists inspired by social housing programs in Europe pitched the idea of the housing authority in the aftermath of World War II. He said today’s democratic socialists now face a tough choice over political priorities.
“We definitely are entering some era, at least at the city level, of more social democratic politics,” he said. “But the question is, where do you want to put your effort? Building new public housing or permanently affordable housing?”
City officials have promised existing tenants at Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea new apartments, which would come under private management. Rents would remain at 30% of their income.
But rather than falling under the federal Section 9 program, the developments would be converted to project-based Section 8, in which the government subsidizes rent through vouchers.
The shift to private-public partnerships has made some tenants uneasy. A group of holdouts are refusing to leave the NYCHA buildings, slowing the project.
“We're trying to save public housing,” said Savasiah Gardner, a 41-year-old tenant who joined the DSA earlier this year. “Public housing is a human right. Period.”
The debate spilled online last month after some accused Layla Law-Gisiko, a local district leader who opposes the redevelopment, of trying to recruit new DSA members to stack votes against the city’s plan. Some questioned her socialist bona fides, noting her hobby as an equestrian and her proximity to Republicans Curtis Sliwa and City Councilmember Vickie Palandino during a press conference last year.
The Chelsea Addition senior building is one of the first two slated for demolition under a plan to redevelop the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses.
David Brand / Gothamist
“Apparently, defending public housing now requires surviving a forensic examination of your political contributions, photographs of your summer meals, and G_d forbid you had a Maryland blue crab,” Law-Gisiko wrote on X.
Law-Gisiko declined to comment.
Weaver, a DSA member, downplayed the internal strife.
“One of the reasons why I love being in DSA is that reasonable people can debate, and I think a robust culture of debate, including debate that happens in public, is part of being a socialist,” she said.
Weaver said the city’s plan — which had been in the works across two prior mayoral administrations — is consistent with DSA principles.
“Keeping our public housing in disrepair as it is today is not acceptable to me given my socialist values,” she said.
The city has yet to close on the deal with the developers. Under the first phase, two buildings have been designated for demolition. More than two dozen families, including a large group of seniors who fear they won’t outlive the redevelopment, are refusing to move.
City officials, including Weaver, have offered to meet with the tenants opposed to the plan.
But the tenants say they want to meet with the mayor.
Jackie Lara, who has lived in the Fulton Houses for 24 years, has circulated petitions, filed lawsuits and even appeared in a documentary that drew the attention of DSA members. Last year, she ran unsuccessfully for City Council.
The 63-year-old said she joined the DSA in hopes that she and other tenants could finally get a meeting with Mamdani.
“He should come speak to the residents that have been fighting this and listen to our story,” Lara said. “That’s all I ask.”
Tagged
Politics
manhattan
new york city
Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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