City ‘Invests’ in Improvements

Saying the city is making investments “that should have been made long ago,” Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced that the city committed $210 million to make New York City Housing Authority developments safer.

The mayor was joined by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye at East Harlem’s Wagner Houses, which is among the 15 developments targeted for installation of exterior lighting, increased policing, improvements to doors and intercom systems, and extended community center hours.

“Local 237 NYCHA Task Force had made such recommendations in their ‘Action Plan’ published last year,” said President Gregory Floyd. “We are pleased that the city is finally taking action on these critical measures.”

A recent guest on “Reaching Out With Gregory Floyd,” Olatoye, head of NYCHA since March 3, said, “We are committed to doing things differently, resetting our relationships, and becoming more transparent.” She added that the “primary goal of her administration is to provide “clean and safe” public housing. Olatoye credited Local 237 members for the work they do to help NYCHAmeet that goal.

Safe public housing is important to workers and residents. Following the murder of a child at Boulevard Houses in East New York in June, NYCHA said it has accelerated plans to install closed-circuit television cameras at 49 locations by the end of this year.

Progress is also under way in reducing the backlog of open maintenance and repair work orders. Olatoye noted that Mayor de Blasio increased funding for repairs and that the backlog has been reduced by more than 81 percent since January 2013 to about 78,000 in June 2014. On average, NYCHA receives more than 6,800 new work orders every day, according to the NYCHA Journal.

Bill to Protect NYCHA Workers Advances

As a result of an aggressive advocacy campaign spearheaded by Local 237, the State Senate and Assembly have passed a bill that would raise the penalty for assaulting an employee of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) while performing his or her duty. Both NYCHA and the City of New York support the bill, S3965A [Lanza], which must next be signed by Gov. Cuomo to become law.

Assaults on NYCHA employees are common and frequently result in serious injuries. Crime in the housing developments is up 31 percent. A caretaker at South Jamaica Houses in Queens recently fought off an attempted rape. The District Attorney’s office charged the assailant with “criminal mischief” because that was all that was allowed under the law.

NYCHA employees are on the front line of government efforts to protect and care for public housing residents. Over the years, Local 237 has won enhanced criminal assault penalties to protect members who work in peace officer titles.

When this bill is signed by Gov. Cuomo and becomes law, NYCHA workers will have a similar level of protection that will help deter assaults.