Ja Rule Joins Fight To Keep NYCHA Tenants' Heat On

NEW YORK CITY HALL — Public housing residents got some star power to fuel their fight for heat on Tuesday. The rapper Ja Rule joined tenant leaders to clap back at the New York City Housing Authority's failure to address systemic heating failures and demand more funding for boiler fixes.

"The mayor, the governor — they should all be ashamed of themselves," the "Always On Time" artist said at a news conference outside City Hall. "New Yorkers (are) living in third-world conditions and it should not be this way."

More than 80 percent of NYCHA residents have lost heat or hot water at some point this winter for an average of about two days, housing officials told a City Council committee two weeks ago.

Ja Rule, a Hollis, Queens native who now lives in New Jersey, said he was moved to get behind NYCHA tenants after hearing about their heating struggles with the cold at a town hall meeting in the Bronx this month. He said he wants to amplify the voices of neglected residents — especially kids in freezing apartments who aren't able to fight for themselves.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has pledged $200 million for heating upgrades at 20 NYCHA complexes in the next four years. But tenants said that's not fast enough — they want the city to spend that much money this year on the urgently needed fixes and eventually invest $2 billion more in the housing authority.

"We are demanding that they stop treating us like second-class citizens," said Carmen Quinones, president of the Federick Douglass Houses Tenant Association on the Upper West Side.

City Councilman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) said NYCHA also needs a tenant oversight committee to hold the agency's beleaguered leaders accountable. Councilwoman Alicka Ampry-Samuel (D-Brooklyn) says she introduced legislation Tuesday to require NYCHA to replace boilers after their lifespans are up and to inspect heating systems ahead of each winter.

Tenants and officials acknowledged that a lack of federal funding has played a role in NYCHA's woes, and that proposed spending cuts pose a new threat. President Donald Trump is ultimately "at the top of this problem," Ja Rule said.

But the city can't spend just $200 million to fix the "20-billion-dollar problem" of NYCHA's crumbling infrastructure, he said. The rapper pledged to turn up the heat on city and state officials because they're closest to the issue — and said he'll enlist other stars in the fight if he has to, though he didn't say who.

"My crew is coming," he said. "If you guys don't know how to answer my call, I'll bring some friends that have some power and some pull as well."

Ja Rule is jumping into the NYCHA fight as Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration considers declaring a state of emergency for the housing authority, which would let it bypass certain procurement rules to get repairs done faster.

"We agree with the sentiments expressed by the Councilmembers and speakers this morning that the conditions at NYCHA — due to severe mismanagement by the City — are unacceptable," Cuomo's press secretary, Dani Lever, said in a statement Tuesday.

De Blasio has said he would embrace a state of emergency if it would truly help tenants, but he has concerns that Cuomo's concerns are genuine and may just be a political play.

De Blasio and NYCHA leaders, including Chairwoman Shola Olatoye, have blamed the heat failures on decades of disinvestment from the federal government. Trump's budget proposal unveiled last week could exacerbate the problem by leaving NYCHA with a hole as large as $936 million and threatening tenants with a rent hike.

Asked about Ja Rule joining the fight for heat fixes, NYCHA press secretary Jasmine Blake said the housing authority "appreciate(s) anyone with a platform bringing attention to the critical funding issues NYCHA faces.

"We hope today’s rally will highlight the catastrophic cuts proposed by the Trump administration and the need to support public housing as a vital resource," Blake said in a statement.

The mayor has touted his administration's $3.7 billion commitment to NYCHA's capital and operating budgets so far. And the Cuomo administration says its $300 million contribution to the housing authority's capital needs in the last seven years exceeds state funding for the previous 21 years combined.

This article has been updated with comment from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.

(Lead image: The rapper Ja Rule joins NYCHA tenant leaders and city officials at a news conference outside City Hall on Tuesday. Photo by Noah Manskar/Patch)