Photos By: Samantha Cotler
Story By: Emily Cotler
Mayor Adams made an appearance in Brooklyn Tuesday afternoon, to make a public statement about the new funds made available to repair and reinvigorate NYCHA housing projects. The funds in question are to be voted on for use first at the Nostrand Houses in Sheepshead Bay, which is where the event took place. Present also with Mayor Adams was Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein, NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt, and Nostrand Houses’ Tenant Association President Barbara McFadden.
“You have billions of dollars. Billions, not millions. You have billions of dollars in repairs that are needed.” Mayor Adams claimed at the podium, set up on the sidewalk outside the entrance to the housing project. “You deserve better.” He goes on to say, in reference to the notoriously poor conditions that many tenants living in NYCHA housing have found themselves in across the city.
After an introduction by Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer, new NYCHA CEO Bova-Hiatt went on to state that more than 78 billion dollars are immediately needed for NYCHA housing across the five boroughs, allocation of which would be voted on by NYCHA tenants starting this fall with Nostrand Houses. Bova-Hiatt went on to discuss what the vote would entail, including but not limited to: keeping rent affordable, whether to preserve the community’s placement in the Section 9 program or to leave it, and renovations within tenant units.
The vote will be conducted November 8, 2023.
