In August, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer (D) issued a report detailing how much unused New York City Housing Authority-owned land in Manhattan could be sold to private developers.

In Manhattan alone, he found that NYCHA, which manages almost 200,000 units, owns 30.5 million square feet of unused development rights-or "more than 11 Empire State Buildings" in volume-according to the report.

If NYCHA sells development rights to private companies, developers can build on site or on adjacent properties. The capital produced could be used for a number of short- or long-term goals like closing the budget gap or building more affordable housing.

For Stringer, the danger for those in NYCHA housing would be that decisions on how to use capital would be made without a public review process.

"Tenants need to be aware and should fight to have a role in planning with NYCHA," Stringer said.

Facing a near $200 million budget deficit, the NYCHA is implementing a myriad of ways to plug the gap, including budget cuts, layoffs and closing community centers.

The largest cause of the deficit is chronic under-funding by the federal government, which will reimburse NYCHA 82 cents on the dollar in fiscal year 2009. And though an increase in federal funding looks dim for now, NYCHA could continue to take advantage of its unused development rights to fix the budget or build new housing.

On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, NYCHA is planning to sell off excessive development rights for two mixed-income residential apartment buildings on two pieces of land, an empty lot and basketball court, to Atlantic Development Group for $10 million.

"It's going to help bring more affordable housing, it's going to bring in more revenue," said Howard Marder, communications director for NYCHA. "Revenue from sales will be used to maintain public housing."

Though Stringer said that the Harborview Terrace sale was not a model for the type of review process for selling development rights he favors, Marder said that NYCHA receives public input, consults with elected officials and gets approval from the federal Housing and Urban Development department.

To generate the highest amount of revenue in selling unused development rights, Steve Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), suggested that NYCHA and the city's planning commission create a larger site to which air rights (the space above a property) could be transferred.

"You wouldn't be putting all of the unused air rights into one development," Spinola said. "That would make the air rights more valuable."

In Manhattan, land is snatched up and used to build market-rate condominiums next to public housing. Depending on the area and zoning regulations, space could be bought for several hundred dollars a square foot, according to Gerard Longo, a developer and president of Brooklyn-based Madison Estates and Properties.

Even in outer boroughs, particularly Brooklyn, developers could find customers for apartment units built next to NYCHA land, he said.

"We've commonly seen $1 million housing next to affordable housing," said Longo, who develops in Manhattan and Brooklyn. "Look at Coney Island. Right now you have Thor Equities there, and you have housing projects."

Housing advocates like Greg Floyd, president of the Teamsters Local 237, feel that any attempt to sell development rights smacks of privatization, or the beginning of the end, to public housing.

"Once they get their foot in the door, they keep coming," said Floyd of private developers. "Where do you stop?"

New developments on currently unused land adjacent to public housing would lead to less open space and burden the neighborhood's infrastructure, Floyd argued.

"Right now you have overcrowding in the area as it is," Floyd said. "How much more are we going to build there?"

At an August 13 public NYCHA hearing on the 2009 annual agency plan, State Sen. Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn), rebuked the selling of the authority's property to private developers because there would be potential to create market-rate apartments.

"Using those developments for uniquely low-income and affordable units would be a proper use of the land and property development rights."

As for the public review process Stringer's report lauds, Parker said there is a risk that a decision on property sold would not be binding and ultimately left to the "binding devices of the mayor."

Council Member Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn), however, sees the potential monetary gain as an alternative to raising rents for families in public housing or closing vital senior centers. Though Barron understood that NYCHA's development rights may need to be sold to build capital, ideally, the state and federal government should fund the housing authority.

"It's a shame and a disgrace," Barron said. "You're forcing NYCHA and others into desperate means in order to balance their budget."