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“There’s a lot that needs to be done in our community,” said Barbara Williams, a 78-year-old activist and NYCHA Polo Grounds Towers resident. DSA candidate Avila Chevalier, who ousted the district’s longtime incumbent in June, “seems to be that person, from what she says and what I’ve read about her, that’s going to do the job.”
This story was produced in collaboration with Factchequeado.
Barbara Williams, a 78-year-old community activist and public housing resident of Polo Grounds Towers in Harlem, spent Saturday afternoon knocking on neighbors’ doors with congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier—who’s poised for a victory in the race to represent New York’s 13th District.
Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, achieved a major political victory by winning June’s primary elections (and ousting the five-time incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the first Dominican American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives).
She’ll face Republican challenger Jomo Manuel Williams in next week’s general election (early voting is underway now). Manuel Williams, who ran for City Council in 2021 and the presidency in 2008, did not respond to City Limits’ attempts to contact him.
“I’m out here today to make sure that residents are registered to vote,” Barbara Williams, a resident of Polo Grounds Towers since 1988, told City Limits.
For over a decade, she’s been a member of Community Voices Heard Power (CVHP), a political advocacy group that advances policies that promote racial and economic justice—and endorses candidates who will do the same.
The group, which works closely with New York Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents and tenant leaders, announced its endorsement for Avila Chevalier to represent the district, which includes Harlem, Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights, and areas in the North-West Bronx.
Half of the district’s residents identify as Hispanic, according to Census data, and nearly a quarter are Black.
Williams, along with about 50 public housing residents and community members, gathered at Polo Grounds Towers with Avila Chevalier for a “Get Out The Vote” event organized by CVHP on Saturday, which was the last day New Yorkers could register to vote for the general election on Nov. 3.
There, Avila Chevalier spoke to residents about her ideas to preserve public housing, and also visited their homes to hear about the day-to-day issues they face—various states of disrepair caused by NYCHA’s $78 billion maintenance backlog.
“There’s a lot that needs to be done in our community,” Williams said, adding that Avila Chevalier “seems to be that person, from what she says and what I’ve read about her, that’s going to do the job.”
One of the first homes Avila Chevalier visited belonged to Mary Andrews, an 82-year-old resident who pointed out chipping tiles, damaged drywall, and mold-stained cracks in the ceiling in her bathroom. Andrews, who said she recently suffered a stroke, worries about inhaling mold, and that repairs are slow to come.
Another resident described recurring plumbing issues that include her bathtub flooding with water.
“So often, we talk about these structural issues in very abstract ways but when you put a person’s story to it, it becomes more urgent,” Avila Chevalier told City Limits.
“To be able to champion this issue in Congress, it’s important for me to be able to say I met Ms. Andrews, and she showed me the condition of her bathroom,” she said. “For people who are living with the consequences of this day in and day out, it is already urgent, and that needs to be reflected in the institutions that have the power to change.”
When making endorsements, CVHP leaders say they seek out candidates who prioritize housing and low-income communities. The organization offers political support, education, training, and endorsements to candidates in New York City, Westchester, and two counties in the Hudson Valley.
This election season, the group invited over 50 candidates across 25 races to apply for its endorsement, and of those, the group endorsed six candidates for the general election.
In the city, those candidates are Avila Chevalier, former City Councilmember Diana Ayala, who’s running to represent Assembly District 68 in East Harlem, and Grace Lee, an assemblymember running for State Senate to represent Lower Manhattan’s District 27.
CVHP considers several factors before extending an endorsement, according to the group’s executive director Juanita Lewis. Those include a candidates’ strategies for engaging people on the ground, as well as their electability and willingness to collaborate on policies that support low- and working-class communities.
It also includes in-person interviews between candidates and CVHP staff—”folks who ask tough questions,” Lewis said.
Candidates are how they plan to persuade colleagues in Congress to support legislation that would benefit public housing residents—especially in New York City, which owns the largest public housing stock in the country—and how familiar they are with their campaign’s funding.
“All of our members have experience around being one or two paychecks away from wondering how they’re going to pay rent,” Lewis said. “We want to get into the policy piece. That’s the biggest reason we wanted you in office.”
Lewis said the group’s members especially resonated with Avila Chevalier’s focus on preserving public housing, funding urgent repairs, and improving community safety.
One of those members is Darique Warren, who moved into Polo Grounds Towers in 1999, at 11 years old. At the time, he said, residents were proud of the development, but as conditions deteriorated, he noticed his neighbors becoming despondent. He cited problems like broken intercoms and doors, among other security features.
“Today the main thing is encouraging people to vote and reminding people why it’s important,” Warren told City Limits. “We want to come to politicians and not just say we’re hurting, but that you can please do this, that and the third for us.”
Warren said he’s drawn to Avila Chevalier’s ideas for funding NYCHA, which include support for the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, which would invest up to $234 billion over 10 years to transition all of the country’s public housing stock into zero-carbon homes. The act was proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Rep. Delia Ramirez (IL), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT), and incumbent Espaillat is a co-sponsor of the legislation, too.
Avila Chevalier is opposed to NYCHA’s efforts to convert its properties to Section 8, bringing in private management companies to take on operations of developments while paying for extensive repairs, including money the housing authority can’t access on its own.
“She’s mentioned using state and city funding, preserving housing, and collaborating with coalitions as the voice of this constituency,” Warren said. “We intend to maintain a positive relationship with her and her team, and I see it as a two way street.”
For other CVHP members, Lewis explained that the “the biggest question that came up around public housing for our folks is around the protection and preservation of it, and what that looks like.”
“If you’re saying housing is an important part of your agenda, you can’t forget this huge stock of housing,” Lewis said of NYCHA.
“Public housing is home to workers, caretakers, people that make the city and the country run,” she added. “It’s time for that new story and narrative around public housing.”
Lewis also said Avila Chevalier’s “excitement about wanting to come and door knock with us in public housing, come to town halls to hear the thoughts people are having around public housing, are some interesting ways she could be a champion for public housing in Congress.”
Residents at Polo Grounds Towers recognized and expressed support for Avila Chevalier as she walked through the hallways doorknocking, and she described those moments as “really surreal.”
“There’s so much excitement,” she told City Limits. “For so much of the campaign you have your head down doing the work, and then you have those moments where you kind of realize we are breaking through, and we are building the people power necessary to wage in Congress.”
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