[COMM-ORG] Research Report "Democracy (In)Action" Finds NYCHA Violates Federal Regulations on Public Housing Resident Participation

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

[ed:  this is a report from CVH's public housing organizing.]

From:     Michelle Perez <michelle at cvhaction.org>

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release:
January 20, 2010

For Copies of the Report & Story Contacts:
http://www.CVHaction.org/pressreleases
(if the report is not live, please e-mail talia at cvhaction.org for a copy)

CONTACT:

Vincent Villano:
203-605-6148 (cell)
212-860-6001 x22 (work)

Sondra Youdelman:
718-839-4474 (cell)
212-860-6001 x21 (work)

Research Report ?Democracy (In)Action?
Finds NYCHA Violates Federal Regulations on Public Housing Resident 
Participation
Over $20 Million in Tenant Participation Activities Funds Mismanaged by 
NYCHA

New York City, NY : According to a report released this morning, the 
New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is violating federal 
regulations (referred to as the 964 regs) that ensure residents'
participation in policymaking. Among the most egregious violations of 
the 964 regulations are: 1) mismanaging over $20 million in funds 
earmarked for resident participation activities, and 2) making a 
decision to demolish the Prospect Plaza development in Brooklyn 
without holding a public hearing. To make matters worse, the U.S. 
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) - the chief enforcer 
of the 964 regulations - is failing to provide the appropriate 
oversight to ensure that residents can meaningfully and democratically 
participate.

The report by Community Voices Heard (CVH), an organizing and advocacy 
group of low-income New Yorkers, many of whom are public housing 
residents, offers the first comprehensive examination of the official 
public housing resident participation system.  With over 400,000 
residents living in 336 developments across New York City, public 
housing is one of the last bastions of affordable housing in the City. 
  "Numerous studies have shown that good things happen when residents 
have the power to shape policy, control their housing resources, and 
access the official structures that represent them," said Vincent 
Villano, CVH Policy & Research Coordinator, and the primary author of 
the report. "Threats to resident participation lead to threats to the 
preservation of this critical housing stock."

The report was officially released at a briefing in midtown. Based on 
a survey with over 1100 public housing residents across the five 
boroughs, five in-depth focus groups, a review of three years of 
meeting minutes between NYCHA and public residents, and observations 
of key resident participation events, the report - Democracy 
(In)Action: How HUD, NYCHA and Official Structures Undermine Resident 
Participation in New York City Public Housing  - finds that the 
official resident participation system is an inactive democracy.

"What we found was that the vast majority of residents are not 
participating in, nor getting critical information from an official 
resident participation system that, in the end, has no formal 
decision-making power," said Vincent Villano.  "Furthermore, the 
system does not even run at its optimum level.  This is largely due to 
barriers created by NYCHA's mismanagement of resources and disregard 
for resident participation regulations as well as HUD's lack of 
oversight and enforcement."

Anne Washington, a public housing resident of 32 years, spoke of why 
she has chosen to participate outside of the official structure: 
"Although I do not participate in my resident association, I am a 
member of CVH's public housing campaign.  This campaign allows me to 
be a leader and ensure that my voice is heard in the struggle to save 
and improve public housing.  At CVH, we can present our issues as 
residents, learn about policy, and target the people who have the 
power to make the changes we want.  We can also participate in the 
research that can make a difference in our lives." Research revealed 
that the vast majority of residents, much like Anne, do not 
participate in the official resident participation system - only 17% 
of survey respondents participated in their resident association and 
only 14% voted in their resident association's last election.

Shenia Rudolph, a public housing resident of Twin Parks in the Bronx, 
connected this lack of participation to the everyday problems faced by 
residents: "If we had more input on NYCHA's policies, our rents would 
not be going up, our elevators would be working, capital projects 
would be done and overseen, and NYCHA would not be paying NYPD $73 
million a year for police services, especially now when we are in a 
huge deficit."

In fact, the report showed that one major barrier to resident input on 
policy is that the absence of an effective communication system leaves 
the vast majority of residents without the critical information on 
NYCHA policies they need in order to meaningfully participate in 
policymaking.  For example, 92% of residents surveyed did not know 
that NYCHA pays the New York Police Department $73 million for 
policing services that should already be paid for with their taxes. 
Moreover, residents are not getting information on the official 
resident participation system itself. Over 80% of respondents had 
never heard of the resident bodies that represent them at the city 
level - the Citywide Council of Presidents (CCOP) and the Resident 
Advisory Board (RAB).

Erik Crawford, one of the youngest Resident Association Presidents in 
the system as well as a member of the RAB, submitted written testimony 
that highlighted the lack of democracy within the official structures 
of the system itself as another barrier to participation: "Right now 
we have a system where you have to be a President of your RA in order 
to participate in your District Council. We have a system where 
residents can't directly vote for the leaders that represent them to 
NYCHA at the city level. We have a system where over 400,000 residents 
are represented by 9 people. I think we can and we need to make this 
system more democratic and more accountable to residents' needs." The 
report indicated that the current representative structure overburdens 
official resident leaders by forcing them to serve in multiple 
positions which, in turn, prevents the existence of about 130 to 161 
elected resident offices.  Furthermore, research also showed that 
there was a level of dissatisfaction with the current representation 
system with only 40% of those residents surveyed feeling that their RA 
represented their interests.

Another official resident leader, Gloria Wilson, RA Secretary of UPACA 
6 in Manhattan, noted the difficulty she has had in representing 
residents without access to resources that could boost their capacity: 
"My particular Tenant Association has existed now for the past 14 
years. NYCHA doesn't give us what we need to encourage the residents 
to participate.  I just found out we had a budget of $16,000 for 2007 
& 2008 for activities.  For years, NYCHA didn't tell us.  What are 
they doing with the money?"  The research uncovered that residents and 
resident leaders do not currently have the capacity - or the 
appropriate access to capacity-building resources, like TPA funds - to 
meaningfully impact policy decisions. NYCHA has mismanaged over $20 
million in TPA funds since 2001 with $7.6 million spent on something 
other than resident participation activities and another $15 million 
that has yet to be allocated to resident bodies.  All the while, HUD 
has not intervened to ensure that these funds reach the residents.

The report calls for a strengthening of current policy, 
implementation, and enforcement so that residents can have real 
decision-making power.  It calls for resident control of adequate 
resources to build their capacity to develop meaningful and democratic 
participation.  And lastly, it makes recommendations that aim to 
provide residents with a better ability to participate in official 
resident leadership structures.  "We have concrete examples of 
resident participation success that we can build on," said Vincent 
Villano.  "Since 2001, public housing residents from Toronto have been 
deciding how $9 million (13%) of Toronto Community Housing 
Corporation's capital budget is spent. This participatory budgeting 
process has allowed residents to gain skills, build community and 
assist their housing authority with spending funds in the most 
efficient way. We can do this in New York City."

Following the presentation of report findings and resident 
testimonies, organizers involved with national efforts to ensure that 
public housing residents shape the policy that affects them, shared 
the impact that excluded residents from participatory processes has 
had on their local communities. Hashim Benford, Lead Organizer for the 
Miami Workers Center - a founding member of the Right to the City 
Alliance (a national alliance of racial, economic and environmental 
justice organizations) - had this to say about the absence of resident 
voices in policy: "In Miami, we've seen firsthand what happens when 
residents are ignored; homes are destroyed, families are displaced, 
and entire communities are torn apart."

Jaron Browne, Lead Organizer for People Organized to Win Employment 
Rights (POWER) in San Francisco - also a founding member of the Right 
to the City Alliance ? talked about the challenge residents face 
holding Housing Authorities accountable:  "Just as the report 
highlights, San Francisco public housing residents consistently report 
feeling like their opinions and decisions are completely disregarded 
by the Housing Authority. Residents consistently tell us they feel 
that the Housing Authority is its own separate government that no one 
can truly hold accountable."

Deangelo Bester, Campaign Director of the Housing Justice Movement for 
National People's Action (NPA), another grassroots national housing 
alliance, stressed the relevance of the report's findings nationally: 
"The report captured what public housing residents across the country 
already believed about the importance of full resident participation.  
I will be encouraging all local groups in NPA's Housing Justice 
Movement to use this report to pressure their housing authorities to 
increase the amount of decision-making present in their resident 
participation structures and processes."

Community Voices Heard is a membership organization of low-income 
individuals that collectively work to have an impact on policies 
dealing with welfare reform, job creation, workforce development, 
access to education & training, public housing and economic 
development.  CVH membership, over 30,000 strong, is comprised of 
welfare recipients, workfare workers, public housing residents, and 
low-income individuals from NYC, Yonkers, Newburgh, and Poughkeepsie.  
The report was prepared as part of the CVH Public Housing Preservation 
& Improvement Campaign.  CVH is a member of both the Right to the City 
Alliance and National People's Action's Housing Justice Movement.