Towns Fights For Full Funding Of Public Housing

Several dozen protesters showed up on the steps of City Hall in downtown Manhattan Thursday afternoon to rally against proposed federal budget cuts to New York City pubic housing.

The group of Congressional delegation members, local and state officials and advocates were led by Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Towns (NY10).

On October 3, in a letter signed by 11 of his colleagues, Towns urged the House Appropriation Committee Chairman Harold Rogers and Ranking member Norman D. Dicks to remove language from the FY12 appropriation bill for Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) that would underfund public housing developments.

According to the language in the bill in its current state, twelve thousand families in New York City will no longer be able to receive federal subsidies for public housing.

“Here we go again ignoring those that are in need and focusing on those that are greedy” said Towns.

Towns added, the bill includes a provision that would deny operating capital and Section 8 assistance to public housing developments that received the stimulus money.

"And any one of those alone would have a devastating impact on public housing in New York City," said Towns. "We must bring attention to this devastating provision and urge leadership in the House of Representatives to remove it from the final bill before it goes to the President for his signature”

Local residents also were concerned over the prospect of in increases to maintain public housing as both bills would include severe cuts to the Public Housing Capital Fund, potentially leading to the loss of tens of thousands of public housing units.

“I’m here because of the $6 billion that they’re going to cut from the funding for affordable housing. That’s going to effect maintenance, your caretakers, upkeep of the property which means an increase in rent” said Cynthia, a Brooklyn mother of 3 who has lived in public housing most of her adult life.

Robert Conergy Jr., district leader for the 56th Assembly District that includes Bed-Stuy, said that if passed, th ebill could lead to many local residents being forced to leave their homes.

“Characteristically the housing complexes in my areas have been stalwarts for our community,” said Conergy. “But we have found Bedford-Stuyvesant under tremendous siege for housing and for space and this is a definite affront to what’s going on

"In Bedford-Stuyvesant gentrification is taking place at a rate that’s very alarming and it seems as though some of that is taking place right in the public housing.”

The Senate and House conference committee are expected to complete the language in compromise bill quickly, so the House can bring the bill to floor during the week of November 14, when the House returns from a week-long recess.

Next week, NYCHA residents will descend on Capitol Hill and join Congressman Towns for a “Lobby Day” in an effort to help persuade lawmakers to remove the language.

“It’s very important for people to understand that unless we have people fighting for us in Washington D.C., we can’t get the funding the run the facilities and the operations of public housing in the city of New York,” said Reginald Bowman, President of the CityWide Council of Presidents and longtime public housing advocate.