Salon.com > Public Housing

I’m afraid my mom will get shot

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Hi Cary,

My mom manages a Section 8 housing complex in our hometown. It was the only job she could find after being laid off a few years ago. While she's never been threatened by a resident, the things she tells me about her work make me fear for her safety. Many of her residents have restraining orders against exes or family members or have otherwise abusive/unhealthy relationships with people in their lives. Because of this, my mom is on a first-name basis with all the police officers in town and lives in fear of an "incident" happening on her watch. Known drug dealers and other unsavory locals frequent the complex as well. Case in point: Recently, a former resident whose mother still lives in the complex was shot in a drug deal gone bad.

“Christmas present” for Sandy victims: Pay rent upfront

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:44:00 +0000

As of Monday, 4,400 public housing tenants in New York's Red Hook, Coney Island and Far Rockaway neighborhoods were still without power, while 18,000 residents in 14 complexes in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan still had no hot water or heat.

Despite their conditions, these residents will not get any credit on rent until January and must continue to pay upfront in full. On Monday, New York City Housing Authority Chairman John Rhea called this delayed credit "a nice little Christmas present" -- a comment, the New York Daily News described as "Scrooge-esque" in its insensitivity.

"Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio blasted Rhea, suggesting that the holiday gift was akin to a lump of coal," the Daily News reported.

After Sandy, thousands left to freeze in public housing

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:47:00 +0000

Between Hurricane Sandy and the below-freezing temperatures, tens of thousands of public housing residents across the Northeast have been left to freeze, as state housing authorities scramble to repair damaged or faulty infrastructure.

In New York City, more than 20,000 residents across 114 buildings are still living without electricity, heat and, in some cases, even running water since last week’s Hurricane Sandy devastated coastal areas of New York and New Jersey.

“The level of dysfunction and apathy from NYCHA to the tenants of NYCHA is shocking,” Brooklyn City Councilman Stephen Levin told the New York Daily News. “I can’t get an answer for the last three and a half hours. I get responses like, ‘We’re trying.’”