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Brooklyn public housing tenants choose new funding plan in landmark vote
By
David Brand
Published Dec 15, 2023
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David Brand/Gothamist
By
David Brand
Published Dec 15, 2023
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Hundreds of public housing residents in Brooklyn have voted in favor of a new funding strategy to address $600 million in needed repairs in a landmark election with major implications for the future of the cash-strapped New York City Housing Authority.
More than 800 residents of the Nostrand Houses in Sheepshead Bay participated in the first-ever vote on the new “Preservation Trust” model, which NYCHA says can unlock millions of dollars by switching the source of federal funding for each apartment. About 56% of voters chose the Trust, while the remaining participants favored maintaining the status quo or selecting a private manager to take over the campus.
“The tenants were heard,” said Barbara McFadden, president of the Nostrand Houses Tenant Association. “They made the decision. No one made it for them.”
McFadden serves on the board of the Trust, a public entity established by state lawmakers to raise funds for the ailing agency. She said she and NYCHA staff spent months explaining the upcoming election and various choices to residents ahead of a 30-day voting window that ended earlier this month.
The Preservation Trust model, which is backed by Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul, will turn over the apartments to a publicly controlled entity and switch the source of federal funding from the traditional public housing program to Section 8 vouchers tied to the apartments.
McFadden said she hoped the extra cash would allow NYCHA to install new cabinets, stoves and refrigerators, repair plumbing, and keep the boilers humming in Nostrand’s 16 six-story buildings.
“In order for a tenant to be safe, they have to be healthy,” she said.
About 21% of participants voted to keep the status quo, while about 20% chose to turn management over to a private firm under the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together program, or PACT, according to results released by NYCHA on Thursday.
“Residents at Nostrand Houses made history,” Adams said Friday, adding the Trust “unlocks billions in dollars to help repair long-aging infrastructure and utilities.”
NYCHA says it needs about $600 million to complete necessary repairs and improvements across Nostrand’s roughly 1,100 apartments, and more than $78 billion to fix all of the city's public housing. NYCHA provides a crucial source of affordable housing for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers whose apartments have deteriorated or become hazardous following decades of disinvestment, mismanagement and scandal.
Tenants across the Nostrand Houses described several of the problems they hope to have addressed on Wednesday, from inconsistent heat and unsafe outdoor space to paint chipping from the walls of their apartments and hallways.
“They want their rent. We want our service,” said Sandra Martinez, 65, who has lived in her second-floor apartment for 18 years.
Retired school crossing guard Greta Miller, 68, said she has lived on the same floor of her building since 1955 and wants kids living there today to have it as good as she did.
“The grounds used to be that you could eat off of them,” Miller said “You gotta do something about the parks, because that's for the kids.”
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brooklyn
David Brand
David is a reporter covering housing for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 908-310-3960.
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