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My Complaints To: "The NYC Housing Authority"
*NYCHA*
December 1st 2025
Local Legends And Free Rent
They call it, “Lefrak Village,” which is properly pronounced, "La FR-OCK," and otherwise known as the home to hip hop legend, "Noreaga." Whereby, "Nore," as he's commonly referred... is a local legend around here and he's a man who was once famous for creating the hit song, "Nothing," which reached top 50 status on the Billboard Chart's in the year 2002, "as a club banger for the streets."
And Nore professes his thought's on this point in time vividly on his Podcast, "Drink Champs," which still ranks in the top 100 podcast’s on I-tunes, to this day. In fact, I’ve heard Nore on multiple occasions speak about that time in hip hop history and he typically recounts, "the immense pride and emotions," of both himself and other's from this neighborhood in regards to his and their musical success over 20 years ago. Although, might I add... that I don't know any Wall Street brokers in my hometown of Walled Lake, Michigan... and we have no subway transit system where I'm from.
But what Nore doesn’t often talk about on his podcast… is that Lefrak Village… was originally established as an experimental area of NYC in the 1970’s… built specifically for Cuban and Latino immigrant's and built with the intent to test the boundaries (*and limitations) of NYC Public Housing assistance.
The Projects
As far as the eye can see… the Lefrak Village, "project buildings," line the road, one after another and approximately 6 miles long. In this area of New York City there are approximately 20 project buildings which house some 20k residents… comprising one of the largest, "public housing settlements," anywhere on Earth… where the proverbial, "Elephant in the room," hss always been a 4 letter word called, "rent." But make no mistake, despite the massive amounts of tax dollars poured into this area... it's still a prideful neighborhood. Houses down these street's can cost in excess of 1.2 million dollars and yet, 20k local residents don’t pay any rent at all? But beyond that, the local hero, "Nore," still isn't very good at rapping or making music… but we don’t really talk about that either because it’s irrelevant, Nore won and he succeeded in a place where success is few and far between…
Nevertheless, I moved here by myself at the end of 2016 from Portland, Oregon... initially seeking a bigger city after I had literally taken control of Portland's recreational basketball scene within 2 year's of living there. I was 29 year's old when I first moved to NYC but today I’m now 39 years old and for much of these past 9 years I’ve lived right acrossed the street from the Queens Center Mall near Lefrak Village. In fact, I almost started calling it, “my home,” on several occasions. But that’s the thing… this is not my home. In fact, the people here are very quick to point out that this is a Latino neighborhood and that I very much do not, "fit in here," which they remind me of rather often, often while pointing the finger at the US federal government which for whatever reason supports these people. Beyond that, drugs run rampant here and a majority of the minorities in these public housing suites either smoke or sell crack cocaine regularly and refuse to get a job, much less leave NYC.
The Reality Of Living In Lefrock Village
See… when you actually LIVE IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD… that beautiful story about immigrant’s fighting their way out of the crowd to the top of the financial hierarchy and outworking everybody in their path… while obviously earning their place in America and becoming self reliant… doesn’t entirely feel the same, in reality. Especially when some of those same success story's spent 5-10-15-25 years NOT PAYING RENT at all in Lefrak Village. But beyond just the obvious issues of living, "rent free," in a, "competitive society," let's examine the specifics of this, "Public Housing System," before I get into my own opinion's on how to change it for the better.
So, I paid rent here in Queens from 2018-2021 before I moved to Brooklyn... and initially in 2017 I had lived in the Bronx. However, for the majority of my time in NYC I’ve lived near Lefrak Village, right acrossed the street from the Queens Center Mall, where I'm writing this article today and right next to 20k rent free apartment buildings.
Pause.
Now, initially... my rent here was 180$ a week and I made 11$ an hour, usually working 32-55 hours a week for a grand total of 290$-500$ a week, leaving me with; my rent paid, a 30$ subway pass and 80$-200$ for the week... which my landlord originally took from me to pay an unnecessarily large, "security deposit," on my 750$ a month apartmeant. And initially that was ok for me. I came to NYC from Portland, Oregon expecting to work hard, expecting to have to go above and beyond to stay in NYC and I didn’t come here expecting free housing and emotional support. In fact, part of the reason why I left Oregon was because of the, "fake caring," that people tend to do out there. But long story long, to keep it 100% honest my landlord in Portland and Detroit wanted like 800$ a month in 2016 and I literally said to myself, "for that much money I can live in NYC," and that’s exactly what I did. So then I moved to NYC and my rent was actually 750$ a month at first but at that time, I didn't really realize that almost 50% of NYC doesn't pay any rent at all... as some sort of an immigration social safety net, "sanctuary city."
My Home?
Yet, this place has never been and still isn't, "my home," despite working 50 odd jobs relentlessly and paying rent on time up until last year... and as I write this article I can see Lefrak Village outside of my window but it still doesn't feel like, "my home." In fact, this is NORE’s neighborhood still and that’s a fact that I haven’t been able to shake… thus far… but beyond that, there's an acceptance here that's been all but forced upon me to accept immigrants and welfare recipients, an acceptance (or guilt) that's been forced upon me apparently due to the 1950's, "Civil Rights movement," that I DEFINTELY DO NOT FEEL GUILTY FOR MYSELF AS A HARD WORKING CAUCASIAN, TODAY. And specifically most of these people (like NORE himself) are essentially entitled or, "beugie welfare recipients," who are basically entitled to call this, "their home," but who consistently deny other's the ability to live here!
Regardless; the identity of this neighborhood now stands somewhere between Cuba and crack dealing African American hip hop artist’s from the 1980’s and I plan on moving again, actually, because it's almost intolerable the way that they treat me here... despite working harder and more frequently than almost all of them including NOREAGA himself. And specifically, this concept of, "home," bothers me today, where even after 10 years in this area this was NEVER and probably WILL NEVER BE, "my home." The foundational home base... that minorities demanded for themselves politically but never provided for other's...
Identity
And it’s very problematic… in my opinion... because due to all of the SUPPORT that this neighborhood has received, primarily over the last 5 decades… today, this is no longer even a ghetto but now this neighborhood is this weird, “in between place,” full of entitlement and poverty? A place where no one really has ANY IDENTITY AT ALL… outside of the 1-2 success stories from the 1990's that were so highly politicized as a win for social welfare program's back then. But long story short, that’s an age old topic concerning; social safety nets, welfare, inflation and government spending and that’s not the core topic of today’s article. The core topic of this article is that the NYC Public Housing system or NYCHA... is failing at the grass roots level and how can it be fixed? What can we do? To make NYC Public Housing, “work?” And as a strong supporter of affordable housing... what needs to happen to make these project buildings thrive in a way that's both fair to those on welfare and those who are not on welfare, in this area? (Or we could all just sell crack and complain about race, like most of Nore's friends did.)
And this issue, again, I think comes back to NOREAGA… whereby, failed leadership... I think is a big part of it, or leader's that were never leader's to begin with. But more specifically the issue that I have with NYC Public Housing in this area, today, is the communal space. If everyone around here had THEIR OWN SPACE then there would be far less of a problem than there currently is... but the shared space often becomes toxic and these entitled minorities never seem to leave! And again, I wrote an article a few months ago as a supporter of NYC Public Housing, I think a community is the most fundamental aspect of any child’s life as well as a sense of, "home." However, I also think that the situation today in Lefrak Village has reached an ultimatum, whereby, building these people’s confidence has seemed to do more harm than good in the simplest terms for this community. And it's not unlike NOREAGA's career itself. Or more specifically… I am constantly forced to listen to NOREAGA. This guy can’t rap at all, he’s got an IQ of 105 and he drink's literally 5 days a week… but all we know in Lefrak Village to this day, is that NORE succeeded here, for whatever reason... back in 1999. Where now his legacy of selling crack cocaine and promoting unnecessary violence through hip hop… is out-dated, yet, that doesn’t seem to change in terms of the mentality of the entitled minorities who have lived here rent free since 1975. And beyond that, the problem with these buildings where NORE grew up… is people like NORE, hence the communal space we share and the constant disagreements regarding the success or lack-there-of of the people in these buildings.
The Problem
Here every stairwell… has a crack head smoking drugs in it. Here, every building has an illegal immigrant or a family of illegal's... living here illegally. Here, every hallway has a, "bully," not unlike NORE himself. So, the issue that I have today is not even so much concerning this concept of public housing assistance (which is imperfect in nature) but my issue is the requirement's for it and the lack of self reliance, that life to death welfare recipients tend to have resulting in this broken community. And for me this problem takes center stage in NYC Public Housing's COMMUNAL SPACES where Cop's are called every day and millions of tax dollars are wasted every year on Policing, on top of the free rent food and board, which has been given to these people essentially as a political, "instrument."
And while I remain a supporter of public housing… what these people do to the building, the hallways, the stairwells, the elevators, the courtyards... is irreversibly bad, negligent and often unacceptable. From selling drugs, to sex offenses, to courting minors sexually, to violent crime, you're essentially taking care of a lower class which is continually spawning nothing short of terrorists!
Yet, these people are CONSTANTLY causing a problem for people like me who are doing well or who do have a future, or who dislike this constant lower class, "drug culture," people like me who are hoping to ascend to Manhattan (or London, or Paris) and seemingly never belonged in Lefrak Village in the first place, apparently? But let me conclude by saying very simply, I support the concept of Lefrak Village, I support NYC Public Housing and I think that our lower class economy in NYC is broken and that we do need a strong remedy to fix that. However, we also need some success story’s here that don't revolve around selling crack cocaine and bragging on the radio... and beyond that, the entitlement entitlement of these people regarding, "Civil Rights," is absolutely abhorrent and when these same people sell crack cocaine, commit violent crimes, make it UNEASY for neighbors to share communal space and refuse to even make me a part of their local community mostly because I'm white, while also polluting the streets, hallways and stairwells that have essentially been, “handed to them,” then this style of welfare can no longer continue.
In Conclusion
So, in conclusion... I would like to amend this idea of a SHARED LIVING SPACE within NYC Public Housing residence’s. Whereby, I personally believe that every NYC Public Housing building... should have it's own door to every apartment with NO COMMUNAL LIVING SPACE whatsoever. In fact, I would prefer; no elevator, no hallways, no stairwells and no shared space. And perhaps we could have the obese welfare recipients live on the upper floors and have them climb an open air staircase to their room's. Whereby, these people ruin every communal space in these buildings! From the elevators to the stairwells, to the hallways, all of that shared space… is, "dangerous," not because it's dangerous but because of the welfare recipients who constantly take advantage of their blessings. Whereby, unfortuantely, all that most of these people ever do in that shared space is harass women and sell drugs, creating a very toxic environment for people like me, who have good intentions and don't seek to end up in prison like half of these people. People like me, who for some reason still live here (when Nas left in 2005) and who still are unable to call this area of NYC their, "home," after 9 years of living here and actually paying rent. Hence the reason that most Black's and Latino's in NYC are encouraged to live in, "Latino neighborhoods," in the first place, I guess this is their city now? And whatever the situation, this is still NORE's home, I can't and I won't take that away from him but with the utmost respect to his generation... leader's lead and you aren't me either.
-William Larsen, Founder CiviliansNews.com