Nice ‘move,’ NYCHA
Sprucing up for HUD visit
If only NYCHA worked this hard to impress its ac
tual residents. Public-housing crews swooped in to gussy up The Bronx’s Patterson Houses ahead of regional HUD administrator Lynne Patton’s planned stay there Monday, residents told The Post.
Workers cleaned up trash, swept public walkways and even painted some buildings to better accommodate the highprofile guest — whose agency just forced the city to accept a federal monitor to oversee lead-based paint removal, mold remediation, heating repairs and vermin abatement that the city was woefully behind on conducting.
“They did a lot of Band-Aid fixes,” said resident Wilbert Montensino, 58.
The Post observed crews busily sweeping at 2:30 p.m., an hour and a half before Patton was supposed to check in.
“This is actually the cleanest I’ve seen it in a while. There’s usually garbage all over,” said Anthony Diaz, 16, pointing to two fenced-in grassy areas near the building at 2645 Third Ave., where Patton is staying.
Resident George Paullar said he’s seen twice as many cleaning crews around as normal.
“It’s really a stunt. It’s not going to do nothing,” Paullar, 72, said.
Patton apparently saw through the ruse.
“NYCHA’s not fooling me by polishing the floors, or picking up the trash, or doing any of the other dayto-day operations that they should be required to do on a regular basis for these residents,” she said.
“This is something that should be happening every day.”
Patton will spend the next month living one week at a time with host families in four NYCHA developments to experience residents’ hardships firsthand.
“For her to be able to hear what my concerns are, it just made me feel like, finally, somebody is hearing my voice,” said host Glady Sanchez, 39.
The Housing Authority did not immediately return a request for comment.