Bianca Peters: Meanwhile, tenants at a NYCHA complex in Brooklyn voted to enter the Public Housing Preservation Trust. This was created by the administration of Mayor Adams.
Rosanna Scotto: So, a third party election administrator certified the results of the people who live at the Nostrand Houses in Sheepshead Bay. This now gives the people living there access to additional federal funding for repairs to their living conditions. Joining us from City Hall this morning to discuss this historic vote is Mayor Eric Adams, Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce Maria Torres‑Springer. Nice to have you both on Good Day New York this morning.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you very much. It's great to be here, and it's good to see both of you ladies.
Scotto: So, mayor, we know NYCHA housing has been in shambles. Every time we hear that they need to fix it up, it's billions and billions of dollars and nothing ever gets done. With this trust, is that going to change things?
Mayor Adams: And it's a combination of things that we're doing. And let's be clear, NYCHA residents, they have been called in for real investment in NYCHA for years. We started out this administration, we placed NYCHA on the top of our housing agenda, historically has been ignored. One out of seventeen New Yorkers live in NYCHA, so it's a substantial population.
And we are doing a combination from what we're doing at Chelsea Houses and what we did yesterday but getting this PACT vote… I'm sorry, this trust vote passed. It is really showing that we're moving NYCHA in the right direction.
Scotto: So, deputy mayor, how is this going to really work? Is it going to cost more money, less money? Because critics say it could eventually cost more money to fix these apartments.
Deputy Mayor Maria Torres‑Springer, Housing, Economic and Workforce Development: Well, this program, Rosanna and Bianca, really unlocks the type of funding that is needed to make the repairs, as you mentioned, to solve and fix the problems that NYCHA residents have been living with for way too long.
So, at Nostrand Houses, for instance, this historic vote where 50 percent of the eligible voters did turn out and vote— 80 percent of them voted for change, 60 percent voted for the trust— it unlocks, in this case, $600 million worth of investments to apartments, to campgrounds, security, infrastructure, social services.
And it does that because through this trust we're able to get more federal funding. And it's exactly the type of tools that we need to use with energy and with speed to complement all the other programs that the mayor mentioned like the PACT program, because these are the tools that are finally going to create a real path for sustainability and improve the quality of life of NYCHA residents.
Peters: Deputy Mayor, let me ask you about that, because there are two programs that residents can choose from and vote on. Maybe you can explain simply the differences between the two and which one would be better for NYCHA residents.
Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: Well, we need all of the tools, and so what we are doing here is giving residents for really the first time in a really important way a real say in which of the tools works best for them. In both of these programs— PACT and trust— we unlock federal funding so that we can make the repairs. In both of the programs, residents retain all of their rights. It will be permanently affordable. They will always only pay 30 percent of their income.
The major difference is that through the trust the repairs are made by NYCHA, it's 100 percent public, and it continues to be managed by NYCHA. With the PACT program, private partners we work with in order to make the repairs.
Both are critical tools, and we need to utilize both. But at every step of the way, make sure that we are engaged with NYCHA residents so they have a real say in the path that their developments take.
Peters: Well, Mayor Adams, let's talk some dollar figures here because we know it's going to cost a lot. You're looking at over $75 billion that NYCHA needs for these repairs; and then, the city needs around $12 billion to handle the migrant crisis in the next three years. I know you want this all [to] come from the feds and you have been in D.C. 10 times now pleading your case. Are they listening, or do you think maybe they're making you kind of go away quietly with an FBI investigation?
Mayor Adams: Well, first, I can't speculate on the outcome of what the federal government is doing or is not doing. But what I am going to do is continually head to D.C., and each time I've gone, look what has happened. Now the coalition has grown. At one time it was Eric Adams going to Washington, now we have the Chicago mayor, the Denver mayor. We're hearing from the governor of Massachusetts.
There is a chorus that's now building up. What started as I was a solo voice last year now my colleagues across the country are saying this cannot continue to decimate our cities in a real way.
But the dollars that we're using with the trust is not going to be part of the PEGs or the efficiency cuts that we must make. This is a different stream of money that is coming in so we can continue to move a NYCHA forward.
But I'm not going to away when it comes out to protecting this city. New Yorkers are angry and their mayor is angry of what we're seeing with this $12 billion budget deficit over a three‑year period, it's something that New Yorkers should not have to sustain [inaudible].
Scotto: Right. And mayor, I know New Yorkers are also angry about the waste. We keep hearing these reports that thousands upon thousands of dollars' worth of food being thrown away every day. You know, in light of that we're cutting our budget, you know, of essential services— libraries, police officers, fire people— this is crazy. What can we do about the food situation that's being thrown in the garbage?
Mayor Adams: Well, think about it, we have over 150,000 migrants and asylum seekers that went through our system, 50 percent we were able to have them self-sustain themselves. And with a 30‑day notice, 80 percent did not return into our system, only 20 percent did.
Now, our obligation while they're in our care is to produce the food to feed them. Is it going to be filet mignon? No, it is not. It is going to be a basic meal, and there are those who don't want their basic meal, and there are those that are stating that we should spend more money on meals, and we're not going to do that. We're giving people a basic meal like we would give anyone that needs the care so we could be efficient with taxpayers' dollars.
Now, it's unfortunate that there's some that take the meal, take one or two bites and decide to discard it. There is not much we can do about that. We have to give them the basic items that are needed so we're not wasting taxpayers' dollars.
Scotto: Mayor, today there's a report in the paper about fundraising for your legal defense, then naming people who have contributed to your legal defense while I guess the FBI investigates you. Are you upset about those people being named this morning, and how important is this fundraising to your legal defense?
Mayor Adams: Well, who they named in the papers were those who are part of the committee that was put together that came to me and said, Eric, we want to help you raise the dollars for your legal defense, something that the former mayor coordinating with the speaker at the time put in place so that elected officials are allowed to legally raise money for their legal defense so it doesn't come of their resources.
And I'm happy that that system is in place, and there's a group of New Yorkers, you see former governor Paterson, former NAACP leader Hazel Dukes and others, everyday New Yorkers who stated, we want to support you during this time. And I'm happy that they chose to do so, because this allows me to stay focused on my mission of navigating us through these crises that we're facing.
Peters: Some people might consider congestion pricing to be a crisis in terms of their wallets being hit hard. I know you are not the biggest fan of this and that this needs to change. What are your thoughts on it now, mayor?
Mayor Adams: Well, listen, I'm a fan of the concept, but operationalizing any concept we have to take into account how it impacts every day New Yorkers. I don't want traffic displaced through the Bronx or Staten Island and other locations, and I want to make sure that our first responders, that our taxis, our school buses, our Sanitation trucks… You know, we can't double tax New Yorkers.
And I would like to see the overwhelming amount of those dollars that we collect through New York City streets, they stay in New York City subway system. And so we just got to make sure we do it right. This is the MTA's obligation, but I have to use my bully pulpit to fight on behalf of everyday New Yorkers.
Scotto: Mayor Adams, always great to talk to you. Deputy Mayor Maria Torres‑Springer. Thank you so much for being on Good Day New York.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.