Public Employee Press: PEP Talk
DC 37 says:
Listen to NYCHA residents and workers!
As Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson announced the appointment of a federal monitor for the New York City Housing Authority in February, DC 37 came out in force to support public housing tenants and employees.
The union is an integral participant in a coalition of more than 25 public housing activist organizations, other unions, and community groups, including Community Voices Heard, and the New York Housing Conference. This unified force is organized to ensure that tenants and workers are heard in the ongoing efforts to fix the public housing system.
“Moving forward, we need to make sure NYCHA is funded,” said Local 372 Executive Vice President Donald Nesbit, who grew up in public housing and is a member of DC 37’s Executive Board. Our union represents thousands of NYCHA workers, and many members are also residents. “If the federal government is going to appoint a monitor, they need to understand what’s going on in public housing,” he said. “And nobody knows better how to improve NYCHA than its residents. They can’t monitor from D.C.”
Carson named Bart Schwartz, a former trial lawyer who once served as the chief of the Southern District of New York’s criminal division, as federal monitor. HUD is providing the housing agency $1.5 billion this year. New York City has committed to invest at least $2.2 billion in the next 10 years to address NYCHA’s longstanding issues.
