Res 1511-2020

By Council Members Rivera and Kallos Whereas, In 2011, the Federal Administration created the Rental Assistance Demonstration program (RAD) managed by the United States (U.S.) Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide tools to Public Housing Authorities (PHA) to financially stabilize and protect the long-term affordability of public housing developments while carrying out necessary repairs and upgrades of buildings systems, grounds, and apartment units; and Whereas, The RAD process financing encourages private investments including the formation of public-private partnerships for the preservation and improvement of the public housing developments; and Whereas, As of January 2020, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) was in need of $40 billion for the repairs and improvements of its public housing, such as mold remediation, roofs replacement, bathrooms and kitchens upgrades, new flooring, buildings facades repairs, new fencing, and asphalt and concrete work, among other work; and Whereas, NYCHA provides housing for about 400,000 NYCHA residents, and serves to connect them to community-based resources and services, as well as to opportunities for economic upward mobility; and Whereas, In New York City, the RAD conversion process is currently referred to as Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) and was initiated in March 2015, when the HUD approved the NYCHA's PACT/RAD participation application for the Ocean Bay Bayside public housing complex in Far Rockaway, Queens; and Whereas; Overall, NYCHA plans to convert at least one third, or about 62,000 apartment units, of its public housing stock into PACT/RAD developments; and Whereas, Prior to submitting a RAD participation application, a Housing Authority is required by the HUD to engage in a public participation process which includes notifying in writing the residents and the resident organization, if any, of the contemplated conversion site of the Authority's intent to pursue a conversion, and does include an opportunity to voice concerns and offer comments, however, concerns still exist from a resident perspective concerning the PACT/RAD conversion process in New York City; and Whereas, Public housing advocates and NYCHA residents have raised concerns over issues related to PACT/RAD conversions, such as new private property managers, who were alleged to have failed either to fix the underlying issues or to address the issues properly; and Whereas, Although residents of NYCHA-managed developments have a portal that allows some monitoring of work progress on housing maintenance problems reported, those in converted PACT/RAD housing sites do not have a similar portal, hence a lack of transparency, information, and responsiveness have highlighted the need for residents in public housing developments, who are contemplating the conversion process, to have a larger voice in the decision-making process; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon Congress to pass, and the President to sign, legislation requiring that any public housing development undergoing the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program (RAD) conversion to include as part of the conversion process, a full vote of all tenants in the respective public housing development at the end of a robust resident outreach process, with a majority of tenants favorably approving, in order for the conversion to move forward. LS #13877 10/22/2020 AZ 2