We love our community, and we love living here.
Sadly, it's been about a decade
that we started seeing
that something was wrong with public housing.
Public housing is a congressionally established housing program that
does housing at 30 percent of your income.
It was created because there was a recognition
that we have a shortage of housing that was affordable.
When Grandma first moved in about 37 years ago,
this place gave her financial liberty again
to make whatever decisions she wanted
and to actually have savings.
I would come here a lot throughout elementary school.
The building was in great condition.
There was a community center.
So, this was like my favorite escape.
For the last 30 years,
Congress hasn't been giving public housing what it needs to operate
and the housing authorities like New York City Housing Authority,
eventually they stopped taking care of the actual buildings.
After I moved in, I would start to slowly try to get things fixed.
The floors started coming up because of the water.
You're constantly told that none of these things can be done
because there's no money.
My apartment's in pretty good shape
because I put so much work into it,
but I paid out of pocket
and I had people help me.
If people don't have that
or can't physically find people to do it for them,
especially in a senior building,
it completely falls apart.
You go there (the office) and they don't fix anything.
I call and they don't come.
I go there, nobody speaks Spanish.
It hurts me personally.
Imagine you have heart disease and everything.
It's like every year, all the officials come around looking for votes,
and then we have to select them.
And then when the issues come, like right now,
they don't care.
We don’t want to be forgotten. That’s the main thing.
I decided to launch Save Section 9
because so few people understood
that it's [public housing] a federal program.
Section 9 was different because Section 9
actually looked at
what does a community need to thrive.
So, they provided resources, outreach, counselors, and that’s the fight.
The housing authority’s saying, well, we'll just go private.
And when we privatize, it'll be better
but there's a loss of accountability when you privatize.
We have to find a way to prioritize
housing people that are the most vulnerable, financially vulnerable
and physically vulnerable in a just way.
When we ask ourselves what does Congress need to do to change things
and to take us back to the vision of public housing in America,
where our apartments are completely habitable and safe,
our infrastructure is replaced and becomes sustainable.
In order for us to get there,
Congress has to recommit to the importance of housing.