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November 29, 2012

Brooklyn Public Housing Residents Demand Repairs, Community Input for Sandy Recovery 
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Residents of Brooklyn’s largest public housing complex are criticizing
the city’s response to the disaster. Public tenants in the
neighborhood of Red Hook went for weeks without basic services like
power and heat, but are are still being asked to pay rent on time before
receiving a credit in January. Earlier this week, residents protested in
front of the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, to issue a
series of demands.

Reg Flowers of the Red Hook Initiative: The short-term demands are just
like repairs in the buildings, making sure that the air quality and the
water quality is safe for people living in housing and just making those
apartments inhabitable again. Some of the long-term demands are making
sure that money that is coming down for recovery efforts that a certain
amount of that is going to be directed toward NYCHA. Also getting people
from housing and from the community at large involved in those meetings
when decisions are being made about recovery money allocation. So I feel
like the long-term goal is getting, empowering the community."

 

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