Torres
On Monday, Council Member Ritchie Torres, in partnership with the Council’s Progressive and the Black, Latino, and Asian Caucuses (BLAC), will be joined by more than 100 public housing residents, housing advocacy organizations and others to rally and protest against the proposed federal budget cuts to the New York City Housing Authority.
The rally is today March 13th, at 12:00PM on the steps of City Hall.
Torres will announce an update in the amount of money NYCHA is expecting to lose this year. Following the rally at City Hall Steps, the Council’s Public Housing Committee will hold a hearing on NYCHA’s budget for Fiscal Years 2017-2021, how the cuts will impact its operations and ability to fix apartments, and how residents will be impacted by the federal budget cuts.
It is expected that the Trump Administration will cut millions in federal aid to NYCHA this year, the largest cuts it has seen in 5 years.
Joining Torres at the rally are: Representative Velazquez, Comptroller Stringer, Council Members of the Progressive and BLAC Caucuses, public housing residents, housing and advocacy organizations including Legal Aid Society, CAAAV, Community Voices Heard, Grand St. Settlement, FPWA, Enterprise, and more.
The Trump Administration’s proposed budget includes cuts to federal agencies across the board in order to fund increases in military and defense spending. The Department of Housing and Urban Development funds Public Housing Authorities across the country and is expecting to cut millions of dollars in federal funding to NYCHA’s budget that will put public housing residents at risk.
It was recently announced that NYCHA will receive a $35 million cut in federal funding which will prove catastrophic for current projects, residents, and updates to infrastructure. That number is likely to be higher. NYCHA already has a $17 billion budget deficit and the federal cuts will devastate the City’s public housing stock.
Residents will go without repairs to their living conditions and their housing stability will be at risk. NYCHA has about $17.1 billion in outstanding construction and repair projects that have not been able to continue given the unwavering cuts to NYCHA manifested in prior budgets.
