NYCHA residents begin voting on the future of funding for building repairs
NEW YORK -- A vote to decide the future of funding for NYCHA complexes and much needed repairs for its aging infrastructure started Wednesday.
The city says the Nostrand Houses in Brooklyn is most in need.
"I don't get enough heat," said 93-year old Clovis Washington, who has been living at the Nostrand Houses for decades and has lived without heat many times during cold winter days. "Very cold. I use a heating pad and blankets."
The city says NYCHA provides housing to more than 500,000 New Yorkers at more than 300 public housing developments across the five boroughs, and Nostrand Houses' immediate needs are worse than about 80% of the other complexes.
"This is the vote to determine what people want for the future of their, currently, public housing homes," said Lucy Newman of the Legal Aid Society.
Wednesday voting began for families in 1,052 apartments in the Sheepshead Bay development on whether they want to participate in a plan to use federal funds for repairs, including a Public Housing Preservation Trust initiative.
"The ultimate difference is that under PAC, the development will go to a private development team and a private property management, and under the trust, it goes to this public trust and remains NYCHA property management," Newman said.
The Legal Aid Society said residents can vote to keep things the way they are, but the current federal funding from public housing has not been adequate to meet the critical needs of the aging public housing buildings.
"There are aging elevators that don't work, piping behind the walls that is decayed and leaking," Newman said.
"I feel like it's a good thing to fix up the projects over here," resident Shmuel Tovi said.
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Officials say if they decide to opt-in to a new funding stream for repairs, it could unlock billions of dollars to fix crumbling complexes. However, many residents would have to move into another NYCHA apartment until the work is complete.
"I don't mind moving back in. I don't mind, if they fix up everything," Tovi said.
"I need to be able to stay here, and I'm 93 years old and I don't need to be moving now," Washington said.
The city said residents at Nostrand Houses will receive ballots in the mail. Voting can be done online, by mail or in person through Dec. 7.
Residents have been meeting with city officials about the different types of funding for the past three months. Twenty percent of residents must vote before anything can move forward.