DON’T LET NYCHA RATS BITE
HUD honcho moves into Bronx complex
Lynne Patton, the regional administrator for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, arrives at Patterson Houses in Mott Haven on Monday.
New York City’s newest public housing resident moved into a Bronx apartment Monday with an inflatable mattress, simple Samsonite luggage and a giant political spotlight.
Lynne Patton, the regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, kicked off her four-week NYCHA stay with a federally funded pizza party in the three-bedroom apartment of Gladys Sanchez, who is hosting Patton for the first week of her stay at the Patterson Houses in Mott Haven.
Patton said she wants a firsthand look at the problems that have plagued the nation’s largest public housing system, and wants to hear from residents about how to fix the broken boilers, leaky pipes and moldy walls that have become so bad that a new federal monitor is poised to step in.
“The goal of this move in is to make NYCHA very aware of what is happening,” she said. “To make the monitor very aware of what is happening. To make my boss, the secretary, very aware of what is happening. To make the President of the United States very aware of what is happening here in his own hometown. He might be President, but he’s a New Yorker first.”
Patton, fresh from a meeting with HUD Secretary Ben Carson, arrived in the Bronx shortly before the sun went down. She brought her own inflatable mattress, which will be set up in Sanchez’ living room, as well as her own portable chargers, towels and clothes.
“I want to go uninterrupted in their daily lives,” Patton said.
Sanchez, 39, lives with her disabled aunt, Inez Valentin, and her three children, Anwar Martinez, Luis Garcia and Angelina Perdomo. She said there are lots of leaks in her home, a condition that could lead to dangerous mold.
“I was honored to be asked,” Sanchez said of her hosting duties. “I feel that it’ll make a difference, her coming in to actually live in the apartment with me and get to experience for herself what I go through on a daily basis, and for her to be able to hear what my concerns are. It just makes me feel like finally somebody is hearing my voice.
“I hope that she learns that we’re people just like everybody else,” Sanchez added. “Because we live in public housing, that doesn’t mean that we don’t deserve the same rights as everybody else. We pay rent according to our incomes. We still deserve to have our buildings clean every day.”
Patton suggested that NYCHA had begun sprucing up the complex in advance of her arrival. The administrator, who is sharing highlights of her stay on a Facebook page, posted before-and-after pictures of a hallway floor she said was recently repaired.
“Sadly, every time I visit a NYCHA building, the trash is picked up, the lobbies are clean, the elevators are working,” Patton said. “This is something that should be happening every day.”
A NYCHA representative said building staff had not been instructed to change their normal routine.
Patton said she welcomed improvements under any
circumstances.
“If I can even, just temporarily, bring immediate repairs and immediate attention to four different properties and four different families needs, then sadly that’s a step in the right direction,” Patton said. “The real change will come when I give my findings, both to the monitor and the chairperson. Residents have wasted enough time. They need change and they need improvements now. I’m hoping that by being here, at the very least, it sends a sense of urgency.”
Patton’s stay, which was delayed by the 35-day federal government shutdown, comes nearly two week after the city and HUD reached an agreement to have a Washingtonappointed monitor call the shots at NYCHA.
In the meantime, Mayor de Blasio has appointed as NYCHA’s interim Chairwoman Kathryn Garcia, the sanitation commissioner, who toured the Vladeck Houses on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
After Patton settled in, she worked off the pizza with residents at an aerobics class offered at the development.