{"id":3794,"date":"2023-11-27T10:19:34","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T15:19:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weact.org\/updates\/we-act-for-environmental-justice-and-members-of-we-acts-nycha-healthy-homes-working-group-respond-to-the-new-york-city-councils-oversight-hearing-on-rad-pact-the-trust-the-f\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T17:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:28:07","slug":"we-act-for-environmental-justice-and-members-of-we-acts-nycha-healthy-homes-working-group-respond-to-the-new-york-city-councils-oversight-hearing-on-rad-pact-the-trust-the-f","status":"publish","type":"update","link":"https:\/\/weact.org\/es\/updates\/we-act-for-environmental-justice-and-members-of-we-acts-nycha-healthy-homes-working-group-respond-to-the-new-york-city-councils-oversight-hearing-on-rad-pact-the-trust-the-f\/","title":{"rendered":"WE ACT for Environmental Justice and Members of WE ACT\u2019s NYCHA Healthy Homes Working Group Respond to the New York City Council\u2019s Oversight Hearing on RAD\/PACT, the Trust, & the Future of the New York City Housing Authority"},"template":"","class_list":["post-3794","update","type-update","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","update_type-press-release"],"acf":{"details":{"":null,"featured_image":5221,"update_type":[366],"focus_area":false,"authors":false,"abstract":""},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/strong>\r\nNovember 15, 2023\r\nContact: Chris Dobens,\u00a0chris@weact.org<\/a>, 718-679-8542\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nNEW YORK<\/strong> \u2013 On October 24, 2023, the New York City Council held an oversight hearing on RAD\/PACT, the Trust, and the Future of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). WE ACT for Environmental Justice (WE ACT), which attended the event along with members of its NYCHA Healthy Homes Working Group, issued the following statement:\r\n\r\n\u201cWE ACT for Environmental Justice\u2019s mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. Aligned with this goal,\u00a0WE ACT\u2019s NYCHA Healthy Homes Working Group<\/a>\u00a0was established in 2020 to build community power and educate members around NYCHA issues by discussing key topics, having conversations with informed speakers,\u00a0advocating for solutions to better NYCHA communities, and pushing for the meaningful involvement of NYCHA residents in decisions that shape their environment and health<\/a>.\r\n\r\n\u201cLike all New Yorkers, NYCHA residents deserve to live in dignified housing that is safe, healthy, comfortable, and affordable. Unfortunately, historic disinvestment from Section 9 public housing at the federal, state, and city levels have left NYCHA\u2019s aging building stock in disrepair and the goal of healthy homes for all increasingly difficult to achieve.\u00a0The most recent Physical Needs Assessment found nearly $80 billion in accumulated capital investment needs across NYCHA\u2019s portfolio, of which $42 billion require immediate replacement within the next year<\/a>\u00a0to avoid the exacerbation of already hazardous living conditions. WE ACT working group members are well aware of the investments needed in their homes. These cost estimates are far beyond what NYCHA can expect to receive from traditional funding sources.\r\n\r\n\u201cWE ACT\u2019s NYCHA Healthy Homes Working Group believes that an equitable future for NYCHA will be led by the residents. However, to date, NYCHA has not been clear in how they will attain meaningful involvement from and engagement with residents surrounding potential conversions of developments to the\u00a0Permanent Affordability Commitment Together<\/a>\u00a0(PACT) program and the\u00a0New York City Public Housing Preservation Trust<\/a>\u00a0(Trust).\r\n\r\n\u201cAt the hearing, we learned about an ongoing NYCHA engagement effort at Nostrand Houses\u00a0ahead of the upcoming vote<\/a>\u00a0to decide whether the development will convert to the Trust, PACT, or remain Section 9 starting on November 8th. This effort included NYCHA administrators and tenant leaders making phone calls, and going door-to-door informing residents about their three voting options as well as partnering with a local high school to hang flyers. They also opened an on-site office where residents can go with lingering questions about the Trust. Thus far, this effort resulted in individual conversations with 67 percent of Nostrand Houses residents who are eligible to vote.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe are glad to see NYCHA recognize the importance of engaging with residents and are hopeful to see such an effort being put toward ensuring all residents are informed about these decisions. The described effort significantly improves upon the\u00a0inadequate engagement and voting processes that happened just a few months ago, where there was language inaccessibility and\u00a0reports of\u00a0non-English speaking residents not comprehending what they were voting for<\/a>; reports of\u00a0certain developments being arbitrarily grouped together to vote on the proposed demolition and rebuild of the Chelsea-Elliot and Fulton Houses; and\u00a0unclear communication surrounding votes being referred to as \u201csurveys\u201d; and low turnout for combined information sessions and voting<\/a>.\r\n\r\n\u201cDespite the outreach efforts at Nostrand Houses and improved voting engagement processes, there is still a large subset of residents who have yet to be included in the Nostrand Houses conversation, and NYCHA has been unclear about the scalability, sustainability, and replicability of this engagement process as they roll-out voting to developments beyond Nostrand Houses.\u00a0NYCHA\u2019s voting rules still\u00a0only require 20-percent participation for a vote to be considered valid<\/a>. That means large-scale changes can happen in a development with little resident input, and leaves room for uneven engagement processes across NYCHA before votes occur.\r\n\r\n\u201cWE ACT\u2019s NYCHA Healthy Homes Working Group urges the City Council to push for ways to increase\u00a0transparency and help repair the relationship between NYCHA and the residents it serves, no matter if a development converts to PACT, the Trust, or remains Section 9. This should include:\r\n