Towns Welcomes Public Housing Advocates to DC

On Wednesday, November 16 Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Towns (NY10) welcomed about 100 public housing advocates from New York City to the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC for a “lobbying day” to protest proposed cuts to the federal public housing budget.  However, the scheduled protest event became a victory rally instead as a deal was reached in the Senate the night before they arrived that removed language from a bill passed in the House of Representatives that would have denied federal assistance to housing units that had received stimulus funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

The delegation was led by Reginald Bowman, president of the City-Wide Council of Presidents of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the official resident association body that represents the 344 conventional public housing developments of NYCHA with more than 410,000 official residents.

Rep. Towns, who was joined at the event by several members of the New York City Democratic Congressional delegation, cautioned that there was still more work to do to maintain the upkeep of the New York City Housing Units Authority’s 161,119 units.  “Your activism helped to restore this critical funding to the federal housing budget,” Towns told the group.  “But there is still much work to do to insure the federal government will live up to its commitment to provide public housing to those who need it.”  Reps. Yvette D. Clarke (NY11), Eliot L. Engel (NY17), Gregory W. Meeks (NY6), Jerrold Nadler (NY8), and Nydia M. Velázquez (NY12) also addressed the spirited group of advocates.

In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) federalized 18,000 public housing units nationwide – 13,000 of which were in New York City.  It provided federal funding for repairs and infrastructure improvements for thousands of public housing tenants.  The provision that would have denied additional funding for these units was drafted by House Republicans into the FY 2012 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations (T-HUD) bill was stripped from the bill on Tuesday.  Rep. Towns had spearheaded a letter to the House Appropriations Committee leadership on October 3, 2011 demanding the removal of the provision.

 “Had this provision become law, it would have crippled New York City public housing for the next fiscal year and it also would have destroyed the city’s ability to leverage private capital for future investment, Rep. Towns stated.  “This is what my constituents sent me to Washington to do. I could not stand by and watch while Republicans in Congress jeopardized shelter for New York City residents. This was not going to happen on my watch.”

The provision would have cost New York City $75 million dollars annually. Of the 13,000 federalized units in New York City, Rep. Towns’ district would have been hardest hit with approximately 5,958 units affect by the proposed cuts. These units include the housing developments of Bay View, Boulevard, Independence, Linden and Williams Plaza.

“We must not balance the nation’s federal budget on the backs of hard working Americans who depend on public housing for their existence. I will continue to fight for full funding for public housing,” added Rep. Towns.

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