NYCHA officials meet skeptical tenants at budget forum

Sylvia Velazquez, a resident of the DeWitt Clinton Houses in Harlem, sums up the feeling of many tenants at the recent NYCHA forum with a placard referring to the agency’s budgetary shortfall.

By Chris Lombardi

Last Monday, in an auditorium at the Fashion Institute of Technology, a panel of 20 top administrators from the New York City Housing Authority lined the stage. Facing them were about 150 residents of NYCHA’s 300-plus complexes, most of them waiting to line up at the microphones on each aisle.

Robert Podmore, NYCHA’s deputy general manager for operations, hoped simply for “a good turnout by the residents,” he told Chelsea Now before the forum. Captain Edward Britton, of Police Service Area (PSA) 4, said, “This is a gripe session. Everyone gets to vent.”

But Phyllis Gonzales, tenant association president for Elliott-Chelsea Houses, told Chelsea Now that that very attitude was what prevented the 500-seat auditorium from being full. “There aren’t a lot of people here because whatever we say, they do what they want,” said Gonzales. “Tonight is gonna be a joke… If they don’t have the money to fix the least little thing, how can they say they’ll do anything on our wish list?”

The official subject of the forum was NYCHA’s budget for fiscal year 2007, which became a cause of great concern for tenants on May 30, when the agency announced a substantial budgetary deficits, including $159 million to be incurred this year and October staff cuts of 500 positions, unless at least one of the three public entities currently funding the developments comes up with more money.

While New York State did include funds for NYCHA for the first time in 10 years in its 2007 budget, the $3.4 million allocation fell far short of the $62 million that NYCHA had requested, while support from the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency has actually decreased as costs increase. Last week, state legislators in Albany did come up with additional funds for the state’s “shelter allowance” for low-income residents, this after the forum. But those funds were already included in NYCHA’s proposed budget, and it was still unclear whether funds would be secured to close the gap.

Although the panel asked NYCHA residents at the forum to limit their comments to the budget, that didn’t stop them from sounding off on multiple topics. Before the evening was over, the record would include building maintenance, drug dealers, worries about registered sex offenders, the authority’s sale of a few West Side parking lots to HPD for new affordable housing, and the U.S. war in Iraq. After the forum ended, some residents gave the panel credit for honesty and pledged to help fight for more funding, while others left sadly, as convinced as when they came that the entire event was a charade.

“I’m watching to see if they’ll tell the truth to the residents, about the danger they’re in,” said Ruben Torres of Teamsters Local 237, which held a rally at City Hall on June 12 to protest potential job cuts at NYCHA. He had been to every meeting previously held by the City Council, which held a series of hearings on the NYCHA budget, and said, “I just wanted to see if NYCHA officials are consistent in what they’re telling the public.”

While skeptical of the forum’s authenticity, Gonzales told Chelsea Now that she was hoping for some clarity about the buildings planned for her development’s parking lots by the city’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HPD). “I’m trying to see if they’re gonna do it, ’cause it [their story] keeps changing. First they definitely are, then they’re running out of money, then they are again.”

HPD’s parking lot plans were on a number of people’s minds, as it turned out. “How affordable will they really be?” asked Miguel Acevedo of Fulton Houses. “My mother raised 11 kids in public housing. Will people like her be able to live there? And how long will they remain affordable?”

Lisa Diaz, a public affairs officer for NYCHA, assured the group that the units in question will be designated for families with incomes of “between 60 percent and 100 percent of the area’s median income,” or between $47,000 and $67,000 for a family of four. She added, “These units are designated for permanent affordability.”

Jimmy Pelsey, Fulton Houses tenant association president, who was skeptical about HPD’s parking lot plans, added that NYCHA should stop counting on legislation that will provide more consistent federal funding, such as Rep. Nydia Velasquez’s Public Housing Equal Treatment Act. “The federal government is gonna give you nothing,” he said with a sad smile, “They’re not through fighting in Iran yet.”

The entire panel, from Diaz to Podmore to Felix Lamb, NYCHA’s general manager for finance, pleaded with the residents to be understanding about the slowness of repairs resulting from the budget gap, and to continue to pressure state and federal representatives. After describing his union’s lobbying efforts, Local 237’s Torres echoed the panel: “We’d like to see more people calling their politicians and getting more involved.”

In response, Fulton Houses’ Acevedo asked the authority to include residents more actively in their lobbying efforts. “We’ll go to Washington, go to Albany with you! Knock on our doors. We’re waiting and anxious to help.”

As the evening ended, Torres pronounced himself satisfied with the panel’s responses. “I thought they were very straightforward.” But to others, like Gonzales, the authority was not forced to explain essential details of the complex budget, including why some allocated funds were not to be spent until 2010.

“We have senior citizens in every one of our buildings,” said Gonzales, who had used her time at the mic to plead for better wheelchair accessibility for herself and other seniors. “Where do you think they’ll be in 2010?”