Councilmembers Alicka Ampry-Samuel (D–Brownsville, parts of Bedford Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, East Flatbush) and Ritchie Torres (D–Bronx) recruited celebrity power to a city hall rally today, in hopes to bring more attention to the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) crisis.
Nearly two-dozen New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents held signs and chanted, “Enough is enough,” to protest the recent public housing fallout. Next to the usual suspects, Ampry-Samuels and Torres stood Jeffrey Bruce Atkins, more popularly known as, Rap artist Ja Rule who said he joined the movement to bring more awareness to the issue.
“My voice needs to be the one for the people so we can speak on these injustices,” said Atkins, who grew up in Hollis Queens. “It’s been going on for a long time –– a lot of years –– and it’s time we stand up and let our voices be heard.”
NYCHA leadership has come under fire after numerous reports of untreated lead inspections. Most recently NYCHA chair, Shola Olatoye underwent an hours-long city council hearing, which introduced reports that 82 percent of NYCHA residents had experienced heat or hot water outages –– this following a winter when New York City experienced record low temperatures.
Ampry–Samuel, who chairs the council’s Committee On Public Housing Committee and helped to conduct the joint NYCHA hearing along with Torres, who chairs the Committee on Oversight and Investigation, called the agencies failings ridiculous.
“When a building collapses in New York City, it’s declared an emergency,” said Ampry-Samuel. “HPD and DOB will come in and make them fix that building immediately. But when our buildings are collapsing around us in the New York City Housing Authority, it’s just business as usual.”
The freshman councilmember grew up in public housing and before serving as a councilmember worked for NYCHA as a senior advisor of Community Engagement and Partnership Division. Amprey-Samuel’s council district holds the largest concentration of public housing in Brooklyn.
Torres spoke more to the decline in federal funding.
“The federal government is failing the residents of public housing,” said Torres.
After a smelly anecdote that blamed the infestation of skunks on construction of the Trump Golf Link Club at Ferry Point in the Bronx, Torres turned his comments directly toward the president.
“I’ve been smelling the stench of Donald Trump well before he became president. “I know from first hand experience that this president is rotten to the core and he is doing a disservice to the residents of public housing,” said Torres.
“Instead of a warm home, the residents of public housing have been given a cold shoulder,” added Torres.
Some residents at the press conference noted the scarcity of NYCHA residents and called for each attendee to bring at least five people to the next hearing or rally. Atkins also pushed for more NYCHA residents to participate, promising to bring more celebrity friends on board, although he declined to name which ones.
“We need the residents of NYCHA to come out in droves,” said the rapper.
