Transcript: Mayor Adams Celebrates NYCHA's Historic Year With Selection of Trust in First Resident Vote, Record-Breaking Progress

December 15, 2023

Deputy Mayor Maria Torres‑Springer, Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce: Okay, good morning, everyone.

Mayor Eric Adams: Just a moment. Who are all these young people here?

Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: These are students from Bronxville.

Mayor Adams: C'mon. C'mon. Come on up here.

Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: Come join us.

Mayor Adams: C'mon, don't be scared. Move that guy out of your way, man. Come on up here. C'mon, you, too. You, too. What's happening? This is all about you.

Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: Awesome. We have this side, too. We have this side, too.

Mayor Adams: They want to be on this… 

Student: Mayor Adams, can I get a fist bump?

Mayor Adams: Yes, you can!

Barbara McFadden, President, Nostrand Houses Resident Association: You want to take the hoodies off for the camera? Hoodies off. Hoodies off for the camera, hoodies off. Thank you. Now hats off… That's a momma talkin'.

Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: Amazing. Well, we knew today was going to be a party, but this is a real party. Good morning. Good morning to everyone. We're so excited to see everyone here today. My name is Maria Torres‑Springer. I'm the deputy mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce. And we just got bigger, but we're all so happy to be here to celebrate a historic year at NYCHA.

Now, New Yorkers, NYCHA residents, they've been waiting a very long time for a transformational moment at NYCHA. Yes, they have.
It is because of the combined leadership of Mayor Adams, of NYCHA tenants, NYCHA resident leaders and the NYCHA colleagues who are here with us today that we have finally arrived at that moment.

And so I want to extend a warm welcome to all of the NYCHA residents and tenant leaders in particular for being here at City Hall with us today.

I also want to recognize amazing partners across government. I will start with the first deputy mayor of New York City, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright.

I also see somewhere Council Member Narcisse is here with us today. We also have the New York State Deputy Secretary for Housing, Tania Dissanayake. Thank you. Thank you for your partnership, and I think we'll be joined by many other partners over the course of this program.

But before we get to all of that, I would like to introduce to all of you the person who is not just the biggest champion of NYCHA, but is also the 110th mayor, the get stuff done mayor of New York City, Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thanks so much, DM Torres‑Springer and her whole team. Sheena, who you always talk about your family, you know, your grandmother growing up in NYCHA. Tony Herbert, who's fighting for NYCHA. It's this entire team.

We started out on January 1st, 2022, indicating that NYCHA was going to be at the top of our agenda. We included it in our housing plan. Never has it been done before. NYCHA, for the most part, everyone stated, wait until next year, wait until next year, wait until next year.

Listen, this is not some sports team, this is a place where people live. One out of 17 New Yorkers live in public housing, and so to continue to say year after year after year that, okay, the calvary is coming, those bugles that we were hearing, I will say it over and over again, it was not the calvary, it was Taps. NYCHA was dying, and it was dying because we didn't put it at the top of the agenda.

We said in this administration that we were going to place it at the top of our agenda. It was part of our housing plan. Never has it been done before, and we did something very significant and important and very universal and revolutionary: we talked to the tenants. We said to the tenants what do you need? How do we do this together? They rallied, went to Albany, fought for this trust.

Then we went on the ground. We spent days after days going to Nostrand Houses and really selling the plan, giving people hope again. And so we are really excited about what's happening to NYCHA.

And today we celebrate a year of victories for working people of NYCHA with this Working People's Agenda. With the certification of voting results, residents at Nostrand Houses made history and voted to enter the Public Housing Preservation Trust. So significant.

Ensuring that NYCHA residents get their fair share of the trust created by our administration and NYCHA signed into law by Governor Hochul unlocks billions of dollars to help repair long‑aging infrastructure and utilities. Anyone who has walked through NYCHA, the amount of times that I have spent in NYCHA, and you look at the cabinets, you look at the peeling paint, you look at the dilapidated floors, you look at these conditions and just say that it's not fair and it's not right, and we need to get something done. $80 billion in capital improvement needs.

We must be creative, bold, forthright, honest and engaged with tenants, and that's what this administration has done and will continue to do. We're going to ensure that NYCHA residents have a safe, quality home to live in. The vote was about the lives of working people; and for the first time, gave NYCHA residents a voice in what happens to their homes.

Too long public housing residents have been cast aside. Not in this administration, and they will never be cast aside again because we are setting the tone for all those who continue to improve the lives of NYCHA residents. They have been told to keep quiet and be grateful for what they are given, and we know "not anymore" because you don't keep quiet. This time NYCHA residents have a seat at the table and have taken control of their future.

Next, the residents of Bronx River Addition will cast their vote in this historic process. This voting process is significant because it will help shape the future of NYCHA, and it builds on the transformational year public housing has had.

Just think about this for a moment. When we look at the records that we have set at NYCHA, I've said this over and over again, there are so many wins coming out of this administration, and here's one that we are proud of in NYCHA. Converting more than 5,000 units to the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together — the PACT program — in a single year. That's a new record.

Closed financing for $1.8 billion for critical capital repairs at PACT developments, a new record. They have allocated more than $1 billion in funding for capital projects in 2023, a new record. And the Public Housing Community Fund raised more than $8 million this year to help supplement NYCHA's needs and improve quality of life for residents. And guess what? That's a new record. And we made in sustainability from clean heating to flood resiliency infrastructure that will usher in a new era of sustainability at NYCHA.
These accomplishments are bigger than a list… That could ever be listed in a press release. But it's a clear indication of how this administration is on the ground doing the work for working people, and we will continue to do so.
And NYCHA is representative of that when you look at the population that live in NYCHA and have been denied and abandoned for so many years. We were the first to include it in our housing plan, and we're going to continue to move forward in a real way.
I want to thank Governor Hochul, who has been a partner on what we're doing in NYCHA, the City Council members, and, the voice that all of you are hearing at home, that is Barbara McFadden who has been a leader and champion for NYCHA and really understands the needs of the residents. And NYCHA leadership, Lisa Bova‑Hiatt and Chair Jamie Rubin.
And of course, the administration leaders have really put this forthright. We had a bold vision. We knew we could not have business as usual. Deputy Mayor Maria Torres‑Springer and First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and the whole team that got behind this initiative, we knew we had to get it done. We got it done. We had it passed.
Now we're going to start to see a new day in NYCHA. Bold, aggressive, fearless moving forward, because we're not doing it only for those who are there now, we're doing it for this population of young people who are around us because the future of NYCHA young people is crucial and is important. Thank you. Great job.
McFadden: Thank you, mayor. Thank you, mayor.
Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: Thank you so much, mayor, for your leadership. You know, we said from day one that we were going to be committed to the people of NYCHA. One in 17 New Yorkers, more than 500,000 New Yorkers, that is larger than Miami or Atlanta or Sacramento.
So, but the commitment couldn't just stop there, we had to deliver results, and you'll see here the mayor just mentioned them, they're also on the poster boards in case people want to take notes, the records that were broken because of the extraordinary efforts of the people of this administration, of the colleagues we have at NYCHA; and of course, residents and tenant leaders.
And so the next person who I would like to introduce is someone who has really been leading the charge in terms of this transformation and leading an incredible team that wakes up every morning — unclear however if they ever even sleep — but making sure that we're doing more, we're doing better and we're doing that faster for NYCHA residents. Please join me in welcoming the CEO of NYCHA, Lisa Bova‑Hiatt.
Lisa Bova‑Hiatt, CEO, NYCHA: Hello, everyone. It's so great to be here at City Hall and stand with all of our partners as we reflect on NYCHA's progress this past year. And we are incredibly pleased to announce that the vote at Nostrand Houses was certified by our third party voting administrator.
Beyond the historic resident vote at NYCHA, it's been a year of progress and accomplishments at the authority thanks to all of you. I want to emphasize that what we've done could not have been done and happened without the vision, dedication and hard work of our employees and our partners.
So thank you to Governor Hochul, Mayor Adams, First Deputy Mayor Wright, Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer for your steadfast support of NYCHA. Together we are making a difference in the communities that we serve.
Thank you to our NYCHA residents and resident leaders who are here today, including Nostrand Resident Association President Barbara McFadden, Fulton Houses Resident Association President Miguel Acevedo, Linden Houses TA President Carol Barnes, and our TA President from Bronx River Addition, who unfortunately could not be here today, Norma Saunders. You are the reason we're here, and we could not accomplish our mission without your input and your insight.
I want to thank our board members, especially our Board Chair Jamie Rubin, our Chief Operating Officer Eva Trimble, as well as the other countless community advocates, elected officials and other partners who stand with us as we strive to improve the quality of life for NYCHA residents.
Transformation drives everything we do at NYCHA. That's why the certification of the first resident vote at Nostrand Houses is such a momentous milestone. It marks the first time that public housing residents have voted to decide their path forward for their homes.
It also demonstrates the power of resident engagement to strengthen communities. Nostrand residents chose the trust, which will transform their development homes from top to bottom, revitalizing them, providing them the quality of life that they, other New Yorkers and NYCHA residents deserve.
We recently announced that residents of Bronx River Addition will be the next to vote on the future of their homes. We have begun 100 days of resident engagement there, which will be followed by a 30‑day voting period, just like at Nostrand Houses.
Another major housing preservation effort, our PACT initiative, is bringing billions of dollars of investment to restore NYCHA buildings and residents' homes. A record $1.8 billion in financing for capital repairs was closed this year across all of our PACT deals, and a total of 20,000 apartments have been converted through PACT so far.
In other PACT news, after five years of extensive resident engagement and planning, residents of Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses expressed via a survey their preference to entirely rebuild their campuses. This next step of this exciting journey will be an environmental review and a public comment period.
Both the trust and PACT are extremely impactful programs that enable comprehensive renovations of residents' homes by switching them to the more stable Section 8 funding stream. At the same time, they ensure that residents maintain all of their rights and protections including permanently affordable rents, and they ensure that public housing remains public.
As part of our comprehensive modernization programs at St. Nicholas Houses and Todt Hill, design-build teams were recently selected to carry out $740 million worth of renovations at those developments. And we are on track to utilize $1 billion of funding for capital repairs this year, the most that NYCHA has ever spent in a single year. And it will address the areas that mean the most to residents: heat, elevators, waste management, plumbing systems, facades and roofs, safety and security, infrastructure, flood resiliency as well as community centers and playgrounds. Considering the more than $78 billion in capital needs across the authority, all of these efforts are incredibly important and incredibly necessary.
Transformation is happening in other significant ways across the authority as well. Our various sustainability initiatives are helping to address the climate crisis while improving residents' quality of life. Thanks to the advocacy with our partners — including many of you here today — residents are beginning to receive their fair share of ERAP funding from the state providing critical Covid‑related rental assistance to many families.
And to supplement our day‑to‑day efforts the Public Housing Community Fund raised a record $8 million plus to support the NYCHA community through economic opportunity programs and more. So, thank you, Alex Zablocki. I know you couldn't be here today.
We have made tremendous progress, but of course, there's much more to do together in the year ahead. Thank you, again, everyone, as we forge a better and more sustainable path for NYCHA and our residents. I'm looking forward to the impact that we can continue to make through our incredible partnerships.
Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: We've talked a lot this morning about centering tenant voices, and so I'm really thrilled to be able to welcome as our final speaker one of those voices, the leader of the Tenant Association at Linden Houses in Brooklyn. Please join me in welcoming Ms. Carol Barnes.
Carol Barnes, Tenant Association President, Linden Houses: Good morning, everyone. I would like to thank The Honorable Mayor Eric Adams for bringing this together. I was a Linden Houses resident, my family moved to Linden Houses in 1967, so we are a longstanding family. I've been on the tenant board since 2015, because NYCHA was falling and I wanted to make a difference.
And year by year, it was just a sad thing to come home and your elevator is not working, and just so many things. Then we were introduced to PACT-RAD, and we were scared because we didn't know what PACT-RAD was, and we were very scared because they were telling us, oh, you're being sold, gentrification is coming, they're going to put all of y'all out, you know. We didn't know what PACT-RAD was.
So, we sat down with Brian Honan, NYCHA, D'Andra from NYCHA. There's plenty others I could name, but we sat down day by day; and even when Covid hit, we talked through Zoom. And when it was time for president, the time for the election to run and I won, and then we turned PACT-RAD, and I said, oh, my God. Now here I am the first‑time president under a new administration. What did I put myself into?
That was looking back. As of now our apartments, we have new bathrooms, new kitchens, new sinks, new stoves, new refrigerators, new floors, new windows, new screens, new blinds. I mean, total renovation top to bottom. We also have 2,000 cameras throughout the development, and Linden Houses is a large development, 19 buildings.
We have security. We have a social service worker on the grounds. And I can honestly say that PACT-RAD has saved us from the fall that NYCHA was taking. And so as of now, I feel very proud of being a TA president. We're in that office five days a week when the residents need us. We sit down every week with management and construction, every week, and we go over everything that's going to be done and that will be done.
So, it's not like we don't have a say, because we did. We had a say in every part of the way. We… Little bump heads, but we had a say. I would like to thank y'all so much and tell you that PACT-RAD worked for Linden; and in the year 2023 we have seen tremendous strides, and I'm looking forward to the future.
Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. I wonder when the tenants at Nostrand Houses can actually expect to see repairs done?
Mayor Adams: When they start to see… 
Question: Repairs… 
Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: I'm happy to do it. We anticipate the repairs… 
Mayor Adams: Thank you, young people.
Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: Thank you for being with us! Good luck. Get back to class.
We expect the repairs to start in approximately one and a half to two years. In the meantime, the work that we're going to continue to do and NYCHA is going to continue to do with the residents of Nostrand Houses includes the work to prepare the conversion from Section 9 to Section 8, a release of an RFP for vendors to do the work, really finalizing, developing the scoping for the project.
And so all of that will start immediately, and by 2026, the repairs will start. And so we're really putting the residents of Nostrand Houses, more than 2,000 residents, on a path to seeing the critical quality of life improvements that they deserve.
Question: How does that partnership work, and how will it work over the next couple of years? How do you have those discussions, and how are those decisions made about what will be done and how… When it's going to be done?
Bova‑Hiatt: So, similar to what we've done in our PACT program, we sit down and starting at the beginning of the year we will sit down with the residents. We will understand what it is that they want done. Every development is different. If you look at the topology of our buildings, we have high rise, we have low rise, we have campuses, we have individual apartments.
So, we've had a great relationship at Nostrand Houses with Ms. McFadden and her TA leaders. We will sit down with them. Our trust president is also here. And it will be an iterative process, listening to what they need, looking at our PNA and developing a scope of work.
Mayor Adams: So, look, I just want to do a quick on the power outage that took place yesterday. You know, actually I was finishing up a meeting when I saw the lights flicker. I thought nothing of it until I got a notification from the commissioner of NYCEM, Commissioner Iscol, who kept us informed.
It was about 12:40‑something in the evening, and he kept us informed throughout the night, and his communication with ConEd. This incident caused brief power drops city‑wide and led to increased calls regarding elevator malfunctions and disruptions in MTA subway service. NYCEM, in coordination with Con‑Ed, NYPD, FDNY, MTA moved swiftly to address these issues.
And for further details and updates, NYCEM Commissioner Iscol will provide more information at a public safety briefing which will start in a few minutes. But it appears as though this outage, this brief outage impacted several boroughs, and thank God there was no loss of life that was connected to this. And Commissioner Iscol will update you exactly what we know currently on the topic.
Question: When you saw the lights flicker, was this at Gracie Mansion?
Mayor Adams: Was it at Gracie? What… It was, well, I think the most important aspect of it, I saw the lights flicker while I was working, and it happened around 12 o'clock. It just goes to show you I'm working all the time.
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