Elevators out of service and Chairman Rhea's commitment to NYCHA residents

For several months Building #9 of the Frederick Douglass Houses has experienced an elevator out of service. The sign on elevator B says repairs will be done and the “expected date” for the elevator to return to service is ASAP. The problem is that the elevator has been out of service for several months. The sign in June said ASAP. The sign in July said ASAP and the current sign for August says ASAP.

The elevator has been out of service (on and off) since the spring. What does ASAP mean to NYCHA? I do not understand how our tenant association tolerates this and more importantly I don’t understand how the tenants tolerate it.

I continue to see older people who can barely walk go up the stairs. We have tenants that are wheelchair bound. Many of them cannot leave their apartment because with only one elevator working there is no guarantee that when they return it will still work.

In the New York City Housing Authority Journal, Vol. 39, No. 7, John B. Rhea, the new Chair of the New York City Housing Authority states that “the best years for public housing are still ahead.”

Mr. Rhea claims that he asked NYCHA employees to fill out anonymous and confidential questionnaires “to help get a better sense of what the real underlying issues are at the Housing Authority.” http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycha/downloads/pdf/j09jule.pdf


Mr. Rhea the problem is two fold. Many tenants do not care. And the ones that care soon lose interest when they are faced with the road blocks NYCHA puts on its tenants. NYCHA will not repair plastering if the apartment is not up for painting which is every 4 years. The painting list is several years long in some complexes. So if you are a tenant that wants to take care of your apartment and ask NYCHA to make plaster repairs to your walls and/or ceilings NYCHA refuses.

This is the cause of why so many apartments are falling apart. Mr. Rhea, I hope you have more than a vision for NYCHA. NYCHA needs a person who can produce results.

They speak Martian

The water tank in our building must be leaking. We are losing water pressure and the hot water is not getting as hot as it used to. So I called the Centralized Call Center for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). I spoke to Mr. Chavez. I told Mr. Chavez that the water tank must be leaking because the ENTIRE building is losing pressure and the hot water is not heating up as usual. After having me wait several minutes so he could do whatever he needed to do Mr. Chavez told me that the hot water issue will be addressed within 24 hours. He then issued a ticket for MY apartment for next week for the water pressure. I told him, "I don't understand why does NYCHA needs to come to MY apartment to check MY water pressure when I told you that the ENTIRE building is losing pressure probably because of a leak?" Mr. Chavez replied, "that right ma'am." Is it me???????????

Where is the outcry by the tenants and the union for NYCHA employees, Local Teamster 237?

Eleven day old Christian McFadden died this weekend. Jacob Newman, age 5 died on August 19, 2008. Neither of these children should have died. But both Christian and Jacob lived in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments. Christian in the Van Dyke Houses and Jacob in the Taylor-Wythe Apartment Complex, owned and overseen by New York City Housing Authority. Both children died because of the neglect of the New York City Housing Authority. The New York Housing Authority has continuously cut back services due to funding loses. The truth is that NYCHA, the State of New York, the Federal government and the City of New York can find the money to fund the starving public housing development. Like the MTA who always screams poverty to raise the fare, NYCHA screams cut backs from all government sources as their excuse to allow the buildings and grounds to deteriorate.
As a resident at the Frederick Douglass Houses in the Upper West Side I am appalled by the neglect these buildings are going through. But more appalling is the indifference of the tenants of New York City Housing and its employees.
According to the New York City Housing Authority website as of July 3, 2008 there were 178,137 apartments in 343 developments; 2,636 residential buildings; 173,808 families and 403,535 authorized residents; 3,337 elevators and 12,600 employees. With well over half a million tenants why are the buildings over run with deficiencies like broken elevators, dirty stairs, dirty hallways, dirty lobbies, asbestos in apartments, hallways, stairways. Mold in apartments. Leaky roofs. Broken windows. Lack of hot water and/or heat. Rats and cockroaches and faulty electrical work. Just to name a few problems. Can you imagine the power of nearly 600,000 tenants and 12,600 employees uniting to make The New York City Housing Authority accountable? Where is the outcry by the tenants and the union for NYCHA employees, Local Teamster 237? How many more must die before the voices unite as one and shake the establishment down to its foundation?

NYCHA's Centralized Call Center is a joke

We all know Frederick Douglass Houses has been "experiencing" a disruption of hot water since 2007. I have been complaining to city officials about this problems for about a year. The hot water heater is still not fixed and on Thursday it went off. After a call to Senator Bill Perkin's office an HPT technician called me then came to my apartment. He told me the hot water heater has a "broken coil" and would take several weeks to fix...surprise. In the meantime he raised the temperate on the heater and went away...surprise. Today the hot water went off again...surprised??? The weird thing is that Centralized Call Center made an ill attempt at fixing the hot water...its not hot...but I will take luke warm over ice cold. The Centralized Call Center called me. I wasn't home at the time of the call so I could not verify if the hot water had been restored. But it struck me as weird.



The Centralized Call Center of New York City Housing Authority is the most incompetent agency that NYCHA has...even more than the housing assistants. This is the same call center that has told me in the past that they will not send someone out to fix the hot water because it was 9:oopm and they did not want to pay overtime. To wait for the management office to open in the morning. This was after telling me (on the same day) that the hot water heater was broken and needed a new part. So which was the "true" lie? Neither. After getting upset with the operator I spoke to the supervisor and the crew was dispatched and the hot water was restored.



So why after all the lies is the Centralized Call Center calling me to find out if the hot water was restored? I don't know. I guess I have become a big pain in the you know what. And they are now covering their you know what.



What ever it takes...as long as I have hot water....tomorrow I will make more calls.

NYCHA has started to sell off it's air rights

I just came across this article dated September 12, 2008 from the City Hall News. It references the sale of the air rights of Harborview Terrace (managed by Amsterdam Houses) to Atlantic Development Group. Please e-mail me if you have more information regarding the sale and Atlantic Development Group.

http://www.cityhallnews.com/news/128/ARTICLE/1634/2008-09-12.html

Selling off Frederick Douglass Houses

Manhattan Borough President held a news conference on August 4, 2008 to release a report titled "Land rich, Pocket Poor". This report which is 10 pages long can be downloaded from the internet. Of interest to me is that Frederick Douglass Houses is one of the development being considered for air rights sell offs.

My main concern is that NYCHA will proceed not only by selling off the air rights to our development but that Douglass Houses will eventually, either in phases or as a straight sale be sold to a private investor(s).

This is an issue that should concern everyone in Douglass Houses because New York City Housing Authority has the right - I repeat - has the right to seal the deal without holding any community meetings.

If this is an issue that interests you and it should whether you live in Douglass or any of NYCHA's development please e-mail me at teants4douglasshouses@gmail.com

For your review I am attaching links to articles that specifically mention Douglass Houses.

Go to: http://communitybasedplanning.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/stringer-nycha-needs-a-plan-to-sell-development-rights/

Go to: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/email/crd_newsletter03-08.html