VIDEO : Schumer promised $80 billion to save public housing in the Infrastructure Bill. Today, the Infrastructure Bill passed with $0 for NYCHA.

The Infrastructure Bill passed today with no money for public housing.

Despite a promise to put $80 billion in funding for public housing into the President’s Infrastructure Bill, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) today oversaw passage of the Infrastructure Bill with $0 dollars allocated to the Nation’s public housing stock.

Because President Joseph Biden (D) worked with the GOP to water-down the Infrastructure Bill, Sen. Schumer has been forced to forget his old promise and make a new promise that the money would instead be put into the Budget Reconciliation that is now under consideration in the U.S. Senate.

Watch as Sen. Schumer’s office have begun to use parliamentary rules that stem from the filibuster to qualify that public housing funding will come with strings attached.

Chuck Schumer : You Promised Us To Save NYCHA. Where Is The Money To Stop RAD/PACT ?

Sen. Schumer has already broken one promise to fund public housing. Will he break another ?

Because of restrictions caused by the filibuster, funding from a Budget Reconciliation can’t come with greater tenant protections. As a result, this puts public housing residents at-risk for bad leases, increased costs, and evictions, because there will be no mechanism to stop the RAD/PACT conversions that Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) keeps shoving down our throats. Furthermore, we can’t demand forensic audits of public housing authorities, and we can’t repeal the Faircloth Amendment that caps the construction of new public housing. We’re scared that politicians will use these limitations to either accelerate Section 8 conversions, or do something worse, like end all Section 9 housing in one fell swoop.

We would prefer that Sen. Schumer pass H.R.235 — the fully-fund public housing bill, with an adjusted funding floor and increased protections we have been requesting — as a stand-alone bill. If he does not come through to protect Section 9 public housing, then we will work to make sure that Sen. Schumer is primaried in the 2022 Midterm Elections. Already, the Democrats are nervous about losing control of Congress.

Based on how they break their promises, they should be worried.

Protest outside AOC Woodside town hall

Demand AOC support NYCHA funding this year !

Join us to demand that AOC issue a statement calling for the full-funding of the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, in the next budget cycle. Her green “New Deal” bill for public housing may take years to pass, if it ever comes up for a vote, leaving NYCHA residents vulnerable to heat outages and privatisation now under way.

Date : Saturday, 14 Dec. 2019
Time : 3:30 pm
Place : I.S. 125Q, 46-02 47th Ave, Woodside, Queens
RSVP : Demand AOC support NYCHA funding this year ! [Facebook]

AOC angry by plans that take 30-40 years to save NYCHA, but her green “New Deal” plan takes 10 years to be fully-funded

Without $3 billion in immediate funding, up to 90% of NYCHA tenants are predicted to experience heating outages this winter.

Admittedly, it is noble for U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY 14) to focus on climate change. But she, like French President Emmanuel Macron, bypassed industry and the military in order to extract climate justice outcomes by causing suffering amongst average people.

U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is blind to how her plan makes NYCHA residents wait for basic, but emergency, repairs, like upgrades to heating systems. In a secret video of a remarks she gave to an event, where her campaign bussed NYCHA residents up to the Bronx, U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez attacked plans that took 30-40 years to fully-fund capital repairs at NYCHA. But her own plan takes 10 years to fully-fund its plan.

In all those years, NYCHA tenants can expect to go without basic necessities. For example, without emergency upgrades in heating, NYCHA tenants face another winter where up to 90 per cent. of residents will experience heat outages, according to predictions separately made by Fight For NYCHA and the Legal Aid Society.

AOC’s Green New Deal for Public Housing makes NYCHA tenants wait years for heat

Press Conference and Protest of NYCHA Working Group at PS 33

The NYCHA Working Group is corrupt !

Please join us for a press conference and protest outside the next NYCHA Working Group.

Mayor de Blasio has empaneled a rigged and stacked NYCHA working group to determine the future of Fulton, Chelsea, and Elliott Houses. But this working group has purposely excluded tenants from Holmes Towers, Cooper Park, Wyckoff Gardens, LGA Houses, and Harborview — even though infill has been planned at those developments.

Date : Tues., 29-Oct-2019
Time : 5:30 pm
Place : PS 33, 281 9th Ave., Manhattan
RSVP : Press Conference and Protest of NYCHA Working Group [Facebook]

What is more, Fight For NYCHA has discovered that Mayor de Blasio has instituted a gag rule, meaning that the discussions of the NYCHA working group will be kept secret. This is a violation of Government transparency. It also violates the First Amendment rights of tenants to be able to speak in informed discussions about their own future. The gag rule and the restrictions in attendance also violate the State’s open meetings law.

Fight For NYCHA raised the issue of legality to these proceedings at first working group, since any disposition of City real property must be subject to the ULURP process.

Please join Fight For NYCHA in demanding to attend and be heard at the second meeting of the NYCHA working group.

Union Square Rally to build public support for a People’s Budget approach to fully-fund NYCHA

This is a City-wide rally to demonstrate support for a grassroots approach to fully-funding the New York City Hosing Authority, or NYCHA. Fight For NYCHA consulted with tenants and passed the People’s Budget for Housing, Justice, and Dignity during a Town Hall meeting at P.S. 33 in Chelsea on Sept. 18. The People’s Budget demonstrates that funding for public housing is reasonable, within reach, and some of these ideas are legislation-ready.

DATE : Sunday, Oct 6, 2019
TIME : 1 pm
PLACE : Union Square Park, Manhattan
RSVP : Stop the War on the Poor [Facebook]

The immediate emergency is to take $10 billion that Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to use to build new jails and, instead, to redirect that money to public housing.