Mayor de Blasio Appoints Public Housing Residents to The NYCHA Board

January 18, 2017

Ensuring residents are represented in decision-making is a strategic objective of NextGeneration NYCHA, the Authority’s ten-year strategic plan

NEW YORK––Mayor Bill de Blasio today appointed three public housing residents to the Board of the New York City Housing Authority.

“No one understands the challenges and importance of public housing more than our residents and I’m proud to welcome Jacqueline Young and Jacqueline Arroyo who will join Victor Gonzalez to share their first-hand experiences and knowledge,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “As active leaders in their NYCHA communities, they will help move us forward as we work tirelessly to protect and strengthen public housing.”

“The voices of NYCHA community members’ are central to our mission and inform all of our work. These resident board members bring years of service as community leaders and their personal experiences to the table to help us improve quality of life for all our residents,” said Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye. “Now more than ever, resident input is critical as we continue to implement NextGeneration NYCHA, our long-term strategic plan to create safe, clean and connected public housing.”

Resident members of the Board represent the more than 400,000 people who call NYCHA home when voting on contracts, resolutions, policies, rules and regulations, and other administrative matters. They attend each monthly board meeting along with Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye, General Manager Michael Kelly, other NYCHA executive leadership and appointed board members who bring relevant professional expertise to bear on NYCHA business decisions. Resident board members also represent NYCHA at a variety of events ranging from press conferences to Family Days.

About the Appointments:

Victor A. González was appointed as the first NYCHA Resident Board Member in 2011 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and reappointed by Mayor Bloomberg in 2013. A public housing resident for more than 50 years, González currently resides in the Rabbi Stephen Wise Towers on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He is the former President of the Wise Towers Residents Association and also served as an alternate member of NYCHA’s Resident Advisory Board.

González has worked extensively with advocacy groups, organizing workshop meetings for residents and supporting activities that impact not only his development, Wise Towers, but also the surrounding community. During his tenure as a NYCHA Board member, he has worked to streamline maintenance requests for apartment repairs and improve family services for formerly homeless residents and senior citizens.

Born in New York City to Puerto Rican parents, González received his Bachelor’s degree from Mercy College and served for five years in the U.S. Air Force, honorably discharged after reaching the rank of Sergeant of Security Police. Following his military service, he spent 33 years working for the United Parcel Service, retiring as International Team Leader in Customer Service in 2005.

Jacqueline Young is a 30-year public housing resident currently residing at Lenox Road Houses who raised two daughters as a single mother. Young served as President of the Lenox Road Houses Residents Association from December 2014 to January 2017. She has worked on behalf of formerly homeless and low-income individuals for the past 20 years at three not-for-profit agencies and presently serves as Low Income Housing Compliance Manager at Comunilife, a community based health and housing service provider. Prior to this role, Young served as a Property Manager for Services for the Underserved and as a Senior Property Manager at Northeast Brooklyn Housing Development Corporation. Young is active on pastoral committees in her church and in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community. She holds an Associate’s degree from LaGuardia Community College/CUNY, a certification in property management from the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and a Registered in Apartment Management (RAM) certification from Boricua College.

Jacqueline Arroyo is a resident of Louis Armstrong Houses, where she attends Residents Association meetings and NYCHA town halls on initiatives such as the Rental Assistance Demonstration and NextGeneration NYCHA, the Authority’s 10-year strategic plan. While raising two children, Arroyo has pursued a career in City service, working for 15 years for two City agencies. She is currently employed in the New York City Department of Education as a supervisor in the Office of the Auditor General and has also worked at high schools located in the South Bronx, Williamsburg and lower Manhattan. Prior to that, she was employed at the Health and Hospitals Corporation. Arroyo participates in parents’ associations at her children’s schools and in fundraising drives to fight diabetes and breast cancer. She holds an Associate’s degree in Liberal Arts and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, both from Boricua College.