Public Employee Press

Political Action conference
Fighting for NYCHA
Part 5 in a series on mismanagement at the New York City Housing Authority

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

Some 200 union leaders and activists gathered Oct. 26 to discuss the union's legislative priorities for 2014 at DC 37's 38th annual Legislative Conference.

"This is our planning meeting on what to present to the new administration in City Hall," said Wanda Williams, director of the union's Political Action and Legislation Dept. in her opening remarks at the Saturday morning meeting at union headquarters.

The three items that topped last year's legislative agenda were all enacted into law: health insurance coverage for Off-Track Betting Corp. retirees, a bill to protect certain public employees from assaults, and Local Law 35, which requires sharper scrutiny over contracting out.

The top agenda item at the October conference - which also included workshop sessions on pensions, safety and health on the job and retirement issues - was the crisis at the New York City Housing Authority. As many as 15,000 DC 37 members live in public housing and more than 500 union members work at NYCHA, delivering services to residents at the agency's community and senior centers.

DC 37 Associate Director Oliver Gray said the union would demand accountability from the new administration and hold its feet to the fire if it fails to adequately address the crisis at NYCHA. "We will not accept empty promises," Gray warned. "The housing needs of our members must be taken seriously."

NYCHA: slow repairs

Bob Hennelly, a communications consultant for the union, presented a video featuring several long-time residents of NYCHA's Castle Hill Houses in the Bronx. One of the residents pointed out that there was a time when every building had its own carpenter and repairs were taken care of quickly. Under the Bloomberg administration, residents call NYCHA's Centralized Complaint Center and wait for months - if they're lucky. Complaints are more likely to be added to the backlog of more than 369,000 pending repair requests. NYCHA says that the backlog peaked in 2013 at 423,000.

Robin Johnson, a retired member of Civil Service Employees Association, a New York affiliate of AFSCME, DC 37's national union, got her apartment repaired only after NYCHA was embarrassed by a full-page ad featuring her story that DC 37 placed in the Daily News and metro newspapers.

"I was scared my ceiling would fall down on top of me," said Johnson, who lives in the Dewitt Clinton Houses in Harlem and shared her experience at the conference.

On a panel on the future of NYCHA, SSEU Local 371 President Anthony Wells called on the new administration in City Hall to increase city funding for NYCHA and get rid of its overpaid management consultants. "The projects are not just where we live. They are our communities, and the city and state have to provide more funds," said Wells.

"Housing is a right, not a privilege," said Local 768 President Fitz Reid, who shared the panel with Local 957 President Walthene Primus and Eugene Woody, an activist with Community Voices Heard.

During the question-and-answer period, Local 371 activist Aurea Mangual suggested that union members become active in their local community boards. "Community boards have housing committees that can address these issues," said Mangual.

Local 1549 Recording Secretary Carmen Flores recommended that NYCHA residents get involved and work together with their tenants associations.

Newly-elected city Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James were surprise guests at the conference who thanked the union for its support in the election. Stringer promised "a top-to-bottom review of NYCHA on day one," and James said she would keep an eye on the new mayor "to make sure he negotiates a fair contract with the union."

Keynote speaker Vanessa Gibson, a newly-elected City Council member, also called for change at NYCHA. "The city has to stop treating NYCHA like a cash cow," said Gibson, who pointed out that NYCHA has to pay the city for sanitation and police services.

Unite for change

Gibson stressed the importance of union members, elected officials and tenants working together to improve living conditions and stop layoffs at NYCHA. "We can't do this alone," she explained. "It has to be a movement with everyone working together."

In June, NYCHA announced cuts that would have laid off 565 union members but funds were restored and the layoffs averted after several emergency meetings that DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts and Associate Director Henry Garrido held with NYCHA management and members of the City Council. Still at risk are services provided by the Resident Watch Program, which is staffed mainly by Local 768 members, and 49 community centers where members of Local 371 work.

Union activists and NYCHA residents have also been fighting the agency's plans to enter into long-term leases with private developers who want to build on open spaces in the housing projects. The city has targeted 14 NYCHA sites for luxury housing, eight of them in Manhattan, but lawsuits filed on behalf of tenants from Campos Plaza and the Baruch and Douglas Houses are challenging NYCHA's authority to make these arrangements.