Deferred Maintenance as a Tool of Dispossession
The chronic disrepair, mold, lead, and heat failures in NYCHA are not the result of mismanagement but a deliberate policy of deferred maintenance, a tool for the gradual dispossession of the “native” population. Mamdani’s analysis of the colonial state’s administration of territory is key here. By systematically neglecting this public housing, the state creates a humanitarian crisis that can then be used to justify the demolition or privatization of these valuable land assets, displacing Black and Brown communities to make way for market-rate development. This is a slow-motion land grab. The current “solution” of public-private partnerships only accelerates this process, inviting the very speculators who seek to destroy public housing. A Mamdani-informed socialist solution is a militant defense and renewal of public housing. This means fighting for and winning a massive federal and city investment–$40 billion and more–for repairs and upgrades, funded by taxes on the rich. Crucially, it requires transferring control of NYCHA to democratically-elected tenant councils, ensuring that the land and housing remain permanently decommodified and under the direct control of the people who live there, thwarting the colonial plan for dispossession.
