2026 Theses Master's

Fixing the Failure? From Pruitt-Igoe to NYCHA PACT

Rakitskaya, Katia

This research examines the trajectory of public housing in the United States, from Pruitt-Igoe in the 20th century to the present New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT), which is a utilization of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program that unlocks funding for needed repairs.

Focusing on PACT, the study investigates whether it constitutes a substantive response to longstanding challenges of disinvestment, maintenance backlogs, and governance failures in public housing, or a reconfiguration of earlier approaches. Drawing on historical perspectives and existing scholarship, complemented by the interviews with stakeholders and grounded observations, the research engages with concerns around privatization, displacement, changes in eviction patterns, the broader social impact on public housing communities, and evaluates them against on-the-ground experiences.

It observes whether PACT addresses past failures or reshapes them in a new form, what its alternatives may be, and what can be recommended to improve the program. Rather than finding PACT to be either a complete solution or a repetition of past failures, the thesis shows a more complicated picture: PACT brings urgently needed repairs and management capacity to NYCHA developments, but it also reinforces concerns around trust, resident power, public control, and how residents experience relocation, enforcement, and long-term oversight.