Floyd Joins Fight to Save Public Housing Services Print E-mail
Newsline 2008 - June

Acting on the most recent announcement by the struggling New York City Housing Authority that it plans to eliminate all non-core services, President Gregory Floyd joined Council Members James Vacca and Rosie Mendez at a press conference on the steps of City Hall June 11 to protest the cuts and call for more funding to preserve day care, Head Start and senior citizens’ programs provided by the agency.


President Floyd is flanked on the left by Council Members Rosie Mendez and
James Vacca as he speaks to the press at City Hall.

“The Council has the ability to enact a budget to give some money to NYCHA,” said Floyd, suggesting a way to help close a shortfall of nearly $200 million projected by HA Chairman Tino Hernandez on May 29, when he testified before the Council’s Housing and Buildings Committee hearing. “I don’t think it is realistic that we will get $195 million, but $50 million to $60 million is attainable,” added Floyd, emphasizing, “The least the Council can do is have the funds available for senior services.”

Hundreds of community centers, senior centers, recreational, job-training and educational programs are threatened throughout the five boroughs, affecting the 500,000 residents who work and live in 343 public housing complexes, and thousands of non-residents who use the quality-of-life services offered by the centers.

Calling for a “renewed financial commitment” to fund NYCHA adequately, Floyd warned that “children, seniors and workers will suffer the consequences of a public housing system that has abandoned them.”

NYCHA, the city’s biggest landlord, with a $2.8 billion operating budget, has lost more than $611 million in funding “due to the ongoing disinvestment in public housing at the Federal level,” NYCHA spokeswoman Millie Molina was quoted as saying in the Chief Leader. The agency receives no funding for community-based programs, and if no support comes through for NYCHA, Molina says it will “take these tough actions.”

James Vacca, chair of the Council’s Subcommittee on Senior Centers, was quoted in the Chief as saying, “These programs are the lifeblood of our public housing, and closing them is not an option.”

Council members are questioning city charges to HA of more than $200 million a year for police, sanitation and other services. “Those are services that other landlords in the city do not pay for,” says Mendez, who is chair of the Council’s Public Housing Subcommittee. She was also quoted in The New York Times as saying, “We’re treating the Housing Authority differently from private landlords who are making profits.”

The Council is also raising questions about the absence of regular financing to help HA operate 21,000 public units built by the city and state.