President Gregory Floyd is joined at City Council by David Jones, president and CEO of Community Service Society, center, and Victor Bach, senior housing policy analyst, CSS.

President Gregory Floyd testified at a City Council oversight hearing on the relationship between lighting and safety at New York City Housing Authority in the wake of the Akai Gurley shooting. The hearing was held on Dec. 16.

Speaking before City Council members Ritchie Torres, chair of the Public Housing Committee, and Vanessa Gibson, chair of the Public Safety Committee, Floyd, joined by David Jones, president and CEO of the Community Service Society (CSS), and Victor Bach, senior housing policy analyst, CSS, emphasized several lighting issues.

“Regrettably,” said Floyd, “It took the recent death of a young man, Akai Gurley, at the Pink Houses to shine more than just a light on an unlit staircase.” He noted that NYCHA, with more than 500,000 residents, is the biggest landlord in the city, but is federally underfunded. “We can make all the suggestions we want, said Floyd, “but money is still the key factor. NYCHA must receive greater help from Washington.” He also said NYCHA should upgrade its lighting with tamper-proof fixtures. No NYCHA buildings currently have them.

Residents are not the only ones who suffer because of broken lights. Local 237 has about 8,000 members working at NYCHA; one third of them are residents as well. “Our elevator mechanics, for example, told me and NYCHA representatives at a labor-management meeting that they have been approached while working on a roof by police officers with guns drawn,” said Floyd, who called for better coordination with the police department to help ensure that when skilled trades or other NYCHA workers are working on the roof, their presence is known.