Pols Spend Scorching Night in Public Housing, Vow to Make Change

Democratic New York City mayoral candidates vowed to make living conditions in public housing buildings better after they spent the night Saturday night in an un-air conditioned Lincoln Houses apartment in Harlem on Saturday, reported the Daily News.

Rev. Al Sharpton had challenged all five candidates to sleep five different apartments within a Harlem project to better understand the issues of the residents. All the candidates said they were “humbled” by what they experienced.

The Lincoln Houses, built in 1949, have yet to receive security cameras, and there’s a backlog of 3,800 repair requests.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn emerged the next day with blurry eyes and a husky voice from limited sleep, reported the paper. She spent the night on the couch of tenant Mariam Diakite and her husband, immigrants from Mali who shares a three-bedroom with her husband and four children.

During her overnight stay, Quinn noted the mold on the walls of the bathrooms in the apartment, along with the hard-working nature of the public housing tenants, pointing to, for example, how Diakite’s husband had to leave for a night shift job delivering baking goods to Philadelphia.

“There is vermin in the lobby, vermin in the elevator and vermin in the hall, but her apartment is impeccably neat,” said Liu, of the apartment where he stayed.

“Just one night won’t solve all the problems, but one night will take the issues out of the margins,” said Rev. Sharpton.

Despite an invitation by Rev. Shaprton to the GOP mayoral candidates, John Catsimatidis backed out at the last minute, and Joe Lhota never expressed any intention to go. Independence Party candidate Adolfo Carrion — a former HUD official — also did not attend.