The construction headquarters for Kel-Tech Construction lies enclosed in a dusty white patch of land surrounded by 15-foot-high chain linkfences and 16 red six-story publicly-subsidized apartment buildings in the heart of the Red Hook, Brooklyn. Kevin Gallagher, the burly head sub-contractor for the masonry project, has been working intermittently since 2003, when the New York City Housing Authority gave the green light to a $18.6 million dollar, multi-contract repair project. This project promised to clean the exterior surface of all the buildings, do brick-reconstruction work on damaged roof parapets, and conduct roof drainage repair and roof repair in the 26 buildings that make up the East and West wings of the Red Hook Houses.

Historically neglected by city services and skeptical about the competence or honesty of the New York Housing Authority, many of the 6000 plus residents, almost 70% of the total population of Red Hook, doubt the real objective of the repairs being done by Gallagher.

A 26-year-old former resident of Red Hook on parole for drug possession who refused to give her name says that the construction site is going to be turned into a holding cell, “to throw all us into.”
While the New York City Housing Authority did not respond to questions for this article, Dorothy Shields, the current and long-time President of the Red Hook East Tenants Association explains that the construction is a long overdue repair to buildings that were built in 1939. She dismisses people who distrust the New York City Housing Authority and the construction.

She emphasized that trust is vital in this situation. “Some people don’t trust nobody. In this world you have to trust somebody,” she exclaimed.

Vanessa Stanton, an office manager at a nearby community health organization, has reason to be distrustful. She is mystified by scaffolding that contractors put up outside her top-floor apartment a bit more than five years ago, only to take it down at the beginning of this year, without doing any apparent work.

The scaffolding began to accumulate urban detritus in the absence of workers: trash thrown from windows, leaves shed from trees as well as nests abandoned by families of squirrels.

Her roof still leaks, she says, even though she was one of the, “main complainers,” filing regular complaints at the New York City Housing Authority management office in Red Hook.

Shields, the tenant leader, admits discontent among tenants. “It’s true that a lot of people are unhappy with the construction,” she says, confirming an incident in which a woman she described as mentally disturbed, and the contractor described as a “crackhead,” poured boiling water on a bricklayer at 8:30 in the morning.

On any given day, drills loudly break apart old brick which is then thrown into metal dumpsters six-stories below. On the ground the gears of a fork-lift grind with effort and the pungent fumes of liquid tar float hot through the air.
For most people, the construction was not seen to be in their long-term benefit, even it was seen as effective.
Carmen Vasquez, 32, a four-year resident of the Houses, heard that the owners of the buildings, “…plan to take everybody out,” and offer an option to buy for currently employed residents.

“This is a lot of money they are spending on these building. They are cleaning the face of each and every building, each and every roof is brand new, and lot of the bricks with cracks in it,” are getting fixed, she said.

“I don’t think they are going to spend so much money if they are not going to have plans for it,” Vasquez said.
A couple walking their two pit bulls in an area normally covered in grass but now a spotty mess of tire tracks in dried mud declared their satisfaction with the roof repairs.

The 49-year-old woman readily ventured her opinion in Spanish, “They are doing a good job here.” She declined to give her name, citing current legal problems. “When it rained the water ran into my house and filled up my bedroom,” soaking all her belongings. Since the workers began, she has had no water damage.

But, despite the perceived good work of the construction crews, the couple doubts the end-motive for the construction. They have heard many rumors from acquaintances and even heard of the existence of a letter indicating that current residents would receive financial incentives, up to $3000 dollars, for vacating the apartments.

Jose Figueroa, 55, her partner, who has been coming to visit Red Hook from his home in Manhattan for the last six years, explains that the purpose of these repairs is to clean them up for rental to people who can afford the true market price of these apartments.

Publicly subsidized housing adjusts rental rates according to factors like monthly combined income and dependents.
Figueroa cited the skyrocketing value of the surrounding property, and last year’s heavily promoted New York City plan to restructure the remaining active piers of the Red Hook waterfront as evidence of the interest of the city to remove the current residents. Average home and condo values for the Red Hook zip code of 11231 is around $700,000, way above the New York City average of 259,000, and higher than three of four surrounding zip codes, according to 2000 census figures.

Speaking from the battered confines of his smoky, air-conditioned trailer, Kevin Gallagher estimates that his team has laid two and a half to three miles of brick walls. He is eager to finish by November. He is done with Red Hook.
Beyond the chain-link fences, the six-story buildings of the Red Hook Houses sprawl across the landscape interspersed

by tall, wispy trees blowing in the breeze and evenly filtering sunlight below. Over the last four years the sounds of construction has given way when the workers leave at 3:00 pm to the omnipresent sound of children playing in the multiple courtyard playgrounds, and occasional gun shots later at night.

The rumors about eviction have been going on for a lot longer, says Jerome Davis, a former resident and sports coach who was raised in the Red Hook Houses.
“The people [in the neighborhood] were saying those same things ten years ago,” he said.

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