Preserving NYC Public Housing: The Challenge for Advoccates

3:00PM, Room 015

Public housing in New York City is in flux. The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has just been placed under a federal monitoring arrangement due to abysmal resident living conditions and failures in its property management operations. Facing a capital backlog of $32 billion, NYCHA plans to convert 62,000 units—over a third of its 176,000 units—to private ownership/management over the next ten years. Advocates must address several challenges at the same time: the enormous capital gap, the privatization shift, stakeholder inclusion in the federal monitoring process, as well as the need for major reforms in the way the authority is organized and managed.

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Panel organizers

Victor Bach

Victor Bach, a Senior Housing Policy Analyst at the Community Service Society, a NYC-based anti-poverty organization, conducts housing policy research/advocacy and provides technical assistance to resident and community-based organizations. Major priorities include the preservation of the city’s affordable housing resources and policies to address the affordability crisis among low-income New Yorkers. Current preoccupation is on strengthening NYCHA public housing and its residents. Bach received his Bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College and his Ph.D. in Urban Studies and Planning from MIT.

Lucy Newman

Lucy Newman is a Staff Attorney in the Law Reform Unit of The Legal Aid Society’s Civil Practice in New York City. Lucy represents public housing residents and Section 8 participants in administrative proceedings at the New York City Housing Authority and City, State and Federal court proceedings. She also represents Legal Aid in meetings with city-wide public housing groups and works on affirmative law reform housing issues. From 2005-2011 Lucy was a Staff Attorney in the Housing Law Unit of Legal Aid’s Bronx Neighborhood Office where she represented individual tenants in nonpayment and holdover proceedings in Bronx Housing Court. Lucy received her Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honors from The London School of Economics and Political Science.

Tom Angotti

Tom Angotti is Professor Emeritus of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

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