Cutting deeper into staffing in the face of continued under-funding by the federal government, the Housing Authority announced last month that it will lay off 190 workers.

The layoffs, scheduled for mid-April, include only one of the 8,000 Local 237 members who work for NYCHA, but lacking support staff, “Members will have to work even harder,” President Gregory Floyd was quoted in The Chief Leader as saying. About 1,500 of our members both live and work at HA facilities. “I hope the residents of public housing who have been silent and who need these services desperately begin to speak out.”

At press time, NYCHA was planning to send a caravan of 20 buses to Albany filled with public housing tenants, tenant advocates and labor union representatives to lobby for increased state funding for NYCHA.

On May 1 at noon, Local 237 will lead a rally at City Hall, where public-housing workers, tenants and advocates will call for increased support. The union is also building a citywide coalition to mobilize NYCHA residents and workers — more than 400,000 strong — to register to vote on Nov. 4 and make their voices heard.

“The Bush administration has initiated a program of death for public housing through attrition,” said Felipe Luciano, a Local 237 consultant. “If we are to keep a solid working- class base in the city, affordable housing is an absolute must.” Luciano noted that New York City has the largest public housing program in the nation. “If it falls through it will destroy the city,” adding that while Bush “tries to define recession, New York’s working families are already in it, paying outlandish rents and home prices while their wages are at a standstill.”

Since 2001, under the Bush administration public housing has been severely neglected. Since then, NYCHA has eliminated more than 2,000 positions. Last June, Local 237 led a rally outside City Hall, calling for funding to prevent 500 proposed layoffs.

NYCHA said the latest round of staff reductions will save it more than $30 million per year. In addition, the agency will receive from New York State an additional shelter allowance of $47 million phased in over the next two years for serving families on public assistance.