This one isn’t even on De Blasio, but call it a head start on De Blasio time. Instead it’s on Barack Obama.
While housing projects in New York City are still often violence prone, they’re not nearly as bad as they used to be before Giuliani cleaned them up. And the most important thing he did there was get criminals out of public housing. So while public housing is still bad, it’s more likely to host senior citizens and less likely to host drug dealers these days.
But fortunately Obama put a stop to that. The first step is bringing in the ex-cons direct from prison.
The New York City Housing Authority will ease its ban on recently released prisoners and allow some of them to live in public housing as part of a pilot program set to start next month.
Public housing nationwide has been off-limits to many people with criminal records and, in New York, residents can be barred for up to six years depending on the nature of their offenses. But two years ago the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development began urging public housing agencies to relax admission policies in an effort to help people released from prison reunite with their families.
The New York City Housing Authority, landlord to more than 400,000 residents, will be one of the first public housing agencies in the nation to test lifting the restrictions. The program will, over the two-year pilot period, place 150 former inmates in public housing and provide social services to help them find jobs and meet other requirements.
“We’re hoping we’ll see fathers and mothers reunited with their children, or parents who are reunited with their children and grandchildren and need their support because they’re aging parents,” said Nora Reissig, the director of family services for the Housing Authority.
If they select the right 150, which they probably will, the path will be paved to ending restrictions and we’ll see housing projects turn into felon housing again. To some degree they still are, with criminals living with their girlfriends and parents and grandparents, but once the restrictions are down, then Fort Apache will be making a comeback.





















