The federal Hope VI program, which supports replacing distressed public housing with mixed-used communities, is financing the project, and displaced residents will receive housing vouchers, Mr. Altman said.

Owners of distressed housing are unlikely to match this haste to pay.

For the last 20 years developers across the country have competed for work turning around distressed public housing, according to Pamela Goodman, senior vice president of the Beacon Companies.

Public housing authorities across the country have used the federal HOPE VI program to rehabilitate distressed public housing and revitalize surrounding neighborhoods by building mixed income housing developments.

Millions of Americans currently live in neighborhoods of highly concentrated poverty where struggling schools, high unemployment rates, distressed housing, persistent and violent crime cause disproportionately negative outcomes for their residents.

Choice Neighborhood Grants provide local leaders with flexible funds to transform high-poverty neighborhoods with distressed public housing into sustainable communities with mixed-income housing, safe streets, and economic opportunity.

Vaughn owns and operates OMNI New York LLC which has bought and rehabilitated 1,142 units of distressed housing in the New York metropolitan area.

Officials often use the number of tax-delinquent buildings as a measure of the city's distressed housing, and that measure suggests a disturbing trend.

It extends and expands the benefits for businesses operating in empowerment zones, enterprise communities and renewal communities, and promotes housing choice for low-income families through the HOPE VI grant program which revitalizes severely distressed public housing.

Mr. Goldberg is a real estate lawyer who redeveloped distressed housing before buying his first hotel, the Wales, on Madison Avenue between 92d and 93d Streets, in 1988.