Adi Talwar
February 7, 2025: Brenda Temple, a 17-year resident of NYCHA’s Oceanside apartment campus on the Rockaway Peninsula in Edgemere, Queens, is a community leader with the Committee for Independent Community Action (CICA). CICA pushes for increased public housing funding and resists privatization. Temple is also a member of the NYCHA Resident Audit Committee, headed by Comptroller Brad Lander.
“We have town hall meetings. We attend City Hall meetings. We pass out petitions. We speak about our fight and our plight in terms of getting the funding that we need,” said Brenda Temple, a lifelong NYCHA resident and member of the Committee for Independent Community Action (CICA).
Seneca Village, a community of predominately Black property owners in what’s now Central Park, is being commemorated to mark the 200-year anniversary of its founding.
Unlike other developments where NYCHA has held votes in recent years, residents at the Jacob Riis Houses will choose between only two options: the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program and remaining in Section 9, the current federal program it’s funded under.
Despite being under court order to remediate it, mold remains a persistent problem for NYCHA, which points to its aging infrastructure and a climbing number of physical needs across its portfolio, particularly as it pertains to plumbing.
In the three years since the grant launched, recipients have planned programs like community gardens and tree planting at their campuses. Applications will close March 23.
NYCHA has the equivalent of 2,000 football fields worth of land, and two organizations are partnering up to help residents claim those spaces.
“Now this community is gentrified with condominiums that are coming up from all over…We’re the forgotten ones,” said Miguel Acevedo, the tenant association president at NYCHA’s Fulton Houses for the last 14 years. “When I took this role, I wanted to make sure that we’re part of any conversation that happens in Chelsea.”
The goal is to bring more New Yorkers to one of the city’s commercial hubs, Midtown South, by adding up to 9,700 homes, including 2,900 affordable units and close to 800 converted office spaces.
Lara, who’s lived at the Fulton Houses for 22 years, is among those fighting NYCHA’s plan to demolish and rebuild the campus and neighboring Elliott-Chelsea Houses. “I don’t need a dishwasher. I don’t need a washer and dryer. I don’t need all this luxury that you’re offering,” she said. “Just leave us alone. This is our home.”
Tras una decisión dividida entre dos opciones de financiación, los residentes de las Hylan Houses deberán volver a las urnas a partir del 26 de febrero para resolver el empate.
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