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Hello all my husband and I have decided to apply for public housing. We were looking for relatively safe developments (my husband's job has him coming home late after 11pm some nights during the week) in Manhattan and Brooklyn less than an hour away (if possible) from my husband's job near Columbus circle in Manhattan.
I have been doing some research on the housing developments and combined with the comments I have seen on threads in this forum i have compiled a list of possible developments we would like to apply for.
If possible I would like some opinions on my list as to whether or not the developments I have picked are safe and also if there are any others that I am missing that I can add to or delete from my list. Thank you in advance for your help.
Manhattan Developments
Carver Houses
Douglass Houses
Dyckman Houses
Grant Houses
Harlem River Houses
La Guardia Houses
Smith Houses
Washington Houses
Brooklyn Developments
Carey Gardens
Cooper Park Houses
Gowanus Houses
Independance Towers
Marlboro Houses
Nostrand Houses
Sheepshead Bay Houses
Taylor-Wythe Houses
Williamsburg Houses
Wyckoff Gardens
Atlantic Terminal
572 Warren St.
Good luck. With NYCHA its not much of a choice. Manhattan waiting list is like 10 years (and that may be under exaggerated) Brooklyn is the second longest waiting list. You get 3 choices of boros, not by developments. They show you 3 apartments when you are called. If you don't choose any of the 3, you have to re-apply. Good luck!
BTW... Laguardia & Smith are NOT good projects. I would not go by the location.... that would fool you! I have lived in LES all my life, and you have by far choosen the worst! You should see the big police watch tower they just put up.... Thank goodness I sleep in Brooklyn!
I see thank you very much for your comments I will keep that in mind when applying. I already knew that I only got choices of boros not developments but I thought it would be good to know when I was shown the apartments what developments are considered better than others.
You never know I may get shown an apartment in one of the better developments so I would like to know which those are.
Manhattan Developments
Carver Houses good
Douglass Houses not so good
Dyckman Houses not so good
Grant Houses good
Harlem River Houses bad
La Guardia Houses not so good
Smith Houses good
Washington Houses good
Brooklyn Developments
Carey Gardens bad
Cooper Park Houses not so good
Gowanus Houses not so good
Independance Towers good
Marlboro Houses bad
Nostrand Houses not so good
Sheepshead Bay Houses not so good
Taylor-Wythe Houses good
Williamsburg Houses not so good
Wyckoff Gardens not so good
Atlantic Terminal not so good
572 Warren St. never heard of this, might be a senior citizens building or a rehab
Thank you again for you help.
hope this helps
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"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
Williamsburg Houses. One of the better housing projects in the city. Rooms are small as hell though(they were built in the 30s, if that makes a difference or not). Closest train is the L at Grand St. or Montrose Av., both busy stops.
From hearsay:
Cooper Park Houses. More isolated than your typical housing project. Surrounding area is industrial and some parts are gentrified. I don't know if it's officially in Greenpoint or still in Williamsburg. Closest train would be a lengthy walk to the L at Grand St. or the bus(route ends around midnight but stops on the projects) to the 7 train.
Independence Towers and Taylor-Wythe Houses. Both in the Hasidic section of Williamsburg. "Lively" area since it's arguably the near the southern border of gentrified Williamsburg and it's near a transportation hub. Allegedly, gangs are becoming a problem not too far from the bus terminal located to the east of the projects. Don't know if they cross into the nearby project area. Closest subways are the J/M/Z at Marcy Av.
Sheepshead Bay/Nostrand Houses: The neighborhood is safe. Don't know about the projects, but I've been told that they are "weak". Subway is far from there. You'll have to take either the bus to the subway or the express bus to Manhattan.
The remaining on the list in Brooklyn I've seen but have no first-hand or second-hand accounts on them and I have no clue about the projects in Manhattan with the exception of a few.
Carver projects are most definitely not "good" by any interpretation of that word.
Don't let their location on madison avenue or proximity to the hospital fool you. They are wild as hell (although they have calmed down considerably over the years, especially after they turned the old basketball court into a garden) and have all the familiar symptoms of projects, they are filthy, the stairways are full of people smoking and hanging out, they smell like Mod cut: language. Rats/roaches everywhere
I remember when one building in carver got new elevators - because they had set fire to the old ones.
Projects are projects and none of them are nice places to live, but as far as Carver goes. Do NOT move there.
If you really must move into public housing try to get into Isaacs or Holmes houses on East 94th street and 1st avenue. Those are really calm/safe as far as projects go.
If you are in that bad of a financial situation I would suggest looking into section 8 or just getting a small/cheap apartment waaaaaaaaaaaay out in Brooklyn. Do not move into the projects unless you absolutely have to.
Carver projects are most definitely not "good" by any interpretation of that word.
Don't let their location on madison avenue or proximity to the hospital fool you. They are wild as hell (although they have calmed down considerably over the years, especially after they turned the old basketball court into a garden) and have all the familiar symptoms of projects, they are filthy, the stairways are full of people smoking and hanging out, they smell like ****. Rats/roaches everywhere
I remember when one building in carver got new elevators - because they had set fire to the old ones.
Projects are projects and none of them are nice places to live, but as far as Carver goes. Do NOT move there.
If you really must move into public housing try to get into Isaacs or Holmes houses on East 94th street and 1st avenue. Those are really calm/safe as far as projects go.
If you are in that bad of a financial situation I would suggest looking into section 8 or just getting a small/cheap apartment waaaaaaaaaaaay out in Brooklyn. Do not move into the projects unless you absolutely have to.
i respect your opinion but you just described about 90% of the projects in new york city. for such a bad project, you did not even mention shooting, drugs or gangs as one of the problems that plague this development, which are some of the major problems with NYCHA, but i'll assume that you left those variables out because you maybe overlooked them...i agree with you on issacs being safe however.
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"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
I left them out because I figured the OP was aware of those types of things.
If not:
One time I was in carver projects visiting my grandmother (which I have been doing since almost birth) and someone got shot right on her floor. My grandmother thinks she lives..well I don't know..some place else and has a habit of always leaving her front door open so we heard them pretty loudly. A short while later the police came and wouldn't let anyone enter or exit the building so we were stuck there all night.
The best part was that the guys blood was stained on the elevator door for the next few months because no one ever cleaned it.
I visited her often and when I was younger I would stay really late while my mom worked and I'd often hear gunshots/fights in the courtyard below (the basketball court that they turned into a garden)
I used to dread leaving because my me and my mom would walk through the grounds of the projects to her car instead of going around them and it was the most terrifying thing I'd ever experience.
I have to say though no one ever bothered me, my grandmother, or my mother (we are all white) but shes been living there for years and plenty of people know her.
All kinds of blood nonsense written all over the hallways/stairways/elevators. It lets you know their presence is there. People smoke weed/crack in the stairway (or at least they used to) and it's not uncommon to see used needles and junk like that in the staircases.
Plus the elevators break down a lot and don't get fixed for a while and you end up having to walk up and down which is a huge pain (and a straight up impossibility for many residents who are elderly and/or disabled)
Also if there's ever a blackout in NYC again you can pretty much forget about leaving your apartment until the lights are back on, because the elevators won't work and I wouldn't walk through those staircases without lights for all the money in the world.
Also as a direct response to the OP again, dyckman and grant are both wild.
Grant is gigantic and I'm sure some buildings are better than others but as a whole they're pretty bad.
Smith houses I know to be bad also, despite their ideal location.
You should try Hope Gardens in Bushwick as they're probably the best projects in the city, but they have a long waiting list, as do all of NYCHA developments and it's almost kind of futile to suggest which projects to move into as they don't really let you pick and choose.
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