Thousands Rally Outside City Hall To Demand More Affordable Housing From De Blasio

CITY HALL, NY — Thousands of public housing residents rallied at City Hall on Monday to demand that Mayor Bill de Blasio do more to provide quality, affordable housing amid a housing crisis in the city.

New Yorkers packed the sidewalks and streets of Broadway outside City Hall for Monday's rally, which drew a crowd of nearly 5,000 people, according to organizers. The rally, organized by the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, or IAF, was attended by many faith-based organizers in East Brooklyn, the South Bronx and other neighborhoods. The crowd was made largely of low-income New Yorkers and residents living in New York City Housing Authority complexes. Thousands of NYCHA residents packed the streets in the rain while de Blasio marched in the annual Columbus Day Parade uptown.

Ancia Mota, a Brooklyn resident, said that her landlord had given her nine months to leave the apartment she'd lived in for the last 5 years.

"I'm 82 years old, but all the senior residences around me have hundreds or thousands of people on their waitlists," she told the crowd. "If I get tossed out, I'll have nowhere to go."

The dearth of affordable housing has remained one of the most persistent and stubborn issues of the de Blasio administration. When de Blasio began his first term as mayor in 2014, he announced a plan to create or preserve 200,000 units of rent-regulated housing by 2024. He said in July that 77,651 of those units has been financed. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

These steps, the protestors said on Monday, weren't enough. They called for an additional 15,000 new units on NYCHA properties dedicated for seniors like Mota. Activists also called for more funding for repairs and maintenance at existing NYCHA facilities. Residents told stories of bug infestations and unsecured doors and locks going unfixed while they lived in NYCHA housing.

Tita Concepcion, a resident of Breukelen public housing in Brownsville, said that earlier this year, her daughter was groped by a man loitering in their building's lobby. Concepcion said the unidentified man put his hand down her daughter's pants as she bent to pick up a package that had fallen.

"She should not have had to have gone through that. If we had doors, locks, intercoms that worked, he never would have been in that lobby," Concepcion told the crowd of thousands on Monday. "I am tired of living in an unsafe building."

The rally's organizers also demanded that more rent-regulated units be reserved for the poorest New Yorkers, and demanded greater accountability for landlords who harassed their tenants. Last month, de Blasio signed a package of bills designed to hold improper landlords accountable.

Local politicians including public advocate Tish James, NYC Comptroller Scott String and U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries also addressed the crowd, and endorsed the group's plan to expand affordable housing. James also committed to hosting a forum on housing for the candidates for City Council Speaker. Current speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is term-limited, leaving her powerful seat up for grabs after November's election.

The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Patch on Monday afternoon.

Image credit: Ciara McCarthy / Patch