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Public Advocate Jumaane Williams addresses NYCHA issues and RAD/PACT concerns
0:26:55
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4 min
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams provides a comprehensive statement on NYCHA's challenges, including repair backlogs, funding needs, and concerns about the RAD/PACT program. He emphasizes the importance of transparency, resident input, and careful consideration of land use decisions, particularly in the context of the Fulton/Elliott development.
- Williams highlights NYCHA's reputation as one of NYC's worst landlords, citing statistics on violations and work orders.
- He expresses concern about the RAD/PACT initiative, particularly regarding resident trust and the voting process at Fulton/Elliott Houses.
- The Public Advocate calls for more transparency from NYCHA on various issues, including mold remediation and work order management.
Jumaane Williams
0:26:55
Good morning.
0:26:56
My name is Jermani Williams.
0:26:57
I'm the public advocate for the City Of New York.
0:26:59
Thank you again, chair Banks, for holding this hearing and allowing me the opportunity to provide a statement.
0:27:03
Over the last few decades, the New York City Housing Authority, NYCHA, has earned a reputation for being one of the worst landlords in New York City.
0:27:10
Their physical needs assessment or p and a was conducted in 2023 by the United States Housing and Urban Development or HUD.
0:27:16
There are 335 developments consisting of 178,000 units that have violations.
0:27:23
NYCHA has been on my New York City worst landlord list in prior years for multiple years.
0:27:28
Between 2023 to 2024, NYCHA's work orders decreased from 618,310, the most in history, to 600,233.
0:27:38
Furthermore, there needs to be complete transparency from NYCHA to determine whether repairs were actually addressed since work order tickets are often closed without repairs being done and it's important to know many units have violations today as well as how many are seat violations.
0:27:52
NYCHA still needs almost $80,000,000,000 with the bee to resolve necessary repairs across the city.
0:27:58
Elected officials continue to hear frustrations of constituents who have had to brave another winter with lack of heat or hot water in their NYCHA buildings, a problem that has been exacerbated as a result of the chronic underfunding by the federal government.
0:28:11
The housing authority advocated for emergency rental assistance program or ERAP funding and there were other reports that NYCHA was to distribute a hundred and 85,000,000 to aid households in that old rent.
0:28:21
Yet, there has been an increase in non payment cases probably as a result of the pandemic as well as NYCHA and its residents waiting for ERAP inclusion and disbursement.
0:28:29
NYCHA created the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together PACT or PACT initiative as part of the next generation plan back in 2015.
0:28:37
Almost ten years later, as of July 2024, it was reported by CEO Lisa Boved Hyatt that a 38 developments across the city are either in the planning and engagement phase under construction or have completed the conversion of PACT resulting in an estimated $13,200,000,000 worth of renovations.
0:28:54
138 out of 100 335 or 41 of NYCHA developments have converted to packed, but a great number of NYCHA residents have shared mistrust during transition periods at the developments.
0:29:05
Unfortunately, we've seen mayor Adams grow closer to president Trump since November 2024, but it is unclear how their relationship translate into assisting NYCHA and New Yorkers.
0:29:14
Moreover, we need to know how Trump heavy handed federal agency headcount reductions and cuts to agency budgets will impact HUD and public housing residents.
0:29:24
While it is clear that NYCHA needs a considerable amount of infusion of of cash, they also must do better with transparency and communication when it comes to a variety of issues such as mold remediation, ground sore, arsenic contamination and automatically closing out work order tickets when someone is not home.
0:29:41
I believe NYCHA has failed to create a healthy environment for its residents or its many pre exist existing challenges have been exacerbated as a result of the pandemic.
0:29:48
Hopefully, we can continue to work together to better understand what meaningfully practices NYCHA's taken to strengthen the majority of the resident's quality of life and that's in management even without some of the funding because both those things are necessary.
0:30:00
In terms of RAD PAC, particularly around Fulton Elliot, this is really, really important to get correct since a lot of people are looking at what's happening here.
0:30:08
And I always want to make it clear that many things can be true at the same time.
0:30:13
It is a % true that we need funding on multiple years and it is probably true that we are not going to get much of that funding from the federal government.
0:30:21
Trying to figure out how we address the tennis needs are really, really important.
0:30:26
Any proposal that's put forward gets pushed back and so we're trying to figure out how best to have tennis themselves lead in what they prefer.
0:30:34
Sometimes it's the best in some very tough decisions.
0:30:36
That means some residents are gonna agree with RAD PAC and some are not and we should allow tenants to be the lead there.
0:30:42
What is concerning me about Fulton Elliot is how some of the votes around this took place and I do think we should take some opportunities to really dig in just to make sure that tenants have the ability to have their voices heard.
0:30:54
I've been really concerned about that, how NYCHA and Developer handled that situation, so I would like some more information about that.
0:31:01
But if indeed it is tenants that have had their voices heard and that's the direction to go in, then we should allow the tenants to lead.
0:31:09
Also, it's really important because we have a very bad history when it comes to this type of stuff, whether it is NYCHA or others where people are gonna be removed or stay in place or land is gonna be taken.
0:31:21
This is very, very valuable land and the makeup of NYCHA is that which sometimes those voices get ignored, particularly when there's land involved.
0:31:31
So this is really, really something we have to pay attention to and get correct And I have a lot of concerns about what's going on.
0:31:37
So thank you, chair, for doing this hearing.
0:31:39
Appreciate it.