Posted Jan 10, 2022, 6:22 AMUpdated on Jan 10, 2022 at 5:07 PM
The question of social housing was brutally recalled to the memories of Americans this Sunday. A violent fire spread in a low-rent apartment building on 181st Street in the Bronx in New York, killing 19 people including 9 children. More than 60 other people were injured and transported to five hospitals and 200 firefighters were mobilized to control the disaster. According to the first elements of the investigation, it is a defective heating which is at the origin of the drama.
“The numbers are appalling,” New York Mayor Eric Adams, who took office ten days ago, told a press conference. This is going to be one of the worst fires we have witnessed in modern history. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, for her part, spoke of a “city in shock”.
Second drama in 4 days
No sooner had the injured been evacuated than a controversy broke out over the living conditions in this type of building. The Twin Parks North West housed 120 low-rent apartments. Built fifty years ago, the building had no emergency exit. The inhabitants who fled the fire had to be evacuated by the interior stairs or by ladders deployed by the rescuers. The smoke detectors, on the other hand, seem to have worked.
The disaster came just four days after a fire tore through another Philadelphia low-income housing building. Twelve people were killed, including eight children. After this tragedy, the American press revealed that funds dedicated to social housing had fallen by 25% between 2001 and 2014 in Philadelphia and that a billion dollars were needed to renovate the housing stock.
‘Worst landlord in town’
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the agency responsible for managing social housing in New York and on which more than 170,000 families depend, has been named the “worst landlord in the city” for the fourth consecutive year. In 2019, the federal government had tried to take control of it because of the safety of the buildings and some experts estimate that it would take 40 billion dollars for it to function normally.
However, the trend is not to obtain more funds for these structures. In his major social and environmental reform project, “Build back better”, Joe Biden planned to devote more than 100 billion dollars to the issue, including 65 billion for the renovation of buildings and 15 billion for the creation of a fund. But the project is on hold, with Republicans and some moderate Democrats fiercely opposed to it.
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