Bid to Save Jobs
Press City for HA Funding

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

About 1,000 Housing Authority tenants and workers rallied outside City Hall Oct. 4, demanding that the city contribute $30 million to the deficit-ridden agency to help avert layoffs.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James  FUND US: Residents of public housing and Housing Authority employees rallied at City Hall Oct. 4 to urge the city to allocate $30 million to help bail out the struggling agency and stop the possible layoffs of 500 workers. 'I wish we had known that the problem was this severe,' said Local 237 President Greg Floyd, who represents 8,000 HA workers, 'so we had time to act instead of react.'

Community Voices Heard called the rally and was joined by officials and members of Teamsters Local 237 and District Council 37, which each represent thousands of HA employees. HA officials announced plans last spring to cut the workforce by 500 either through attrition, layoffs, or a combination of both.

Seeks Holding Action

"We want the city to fund the Housing Authority until we get the state and Federal funding we need," said Local 237 President Greg Floyd, who represents 8,000 HA workers.

The agency announced a $225-million deficit in May, mostly as a result of ongoing Federal cuts. The state last month passed a bill that would eventually add $47 million annually to HA coffers.

Union officials and community groups hold Washington primarily responsible for the financial problems. "It's the Federal Government," said Robert Camacho, who is a Grounds Supervisor at Queensbridge. "Everything's going to the war. We need the money here."

Now advocates say the city is the last resort, since the Federal budget is close to finished and the state is unlikely to allocate additional funding.

'The Money's There'

"People need public housing," DC 37 Treasurer Maf Misbah Uddin told the crowd at the rally. "The money is there but they don't want to provide it. Let the politicians be responsible for keeping affordable housing."

About 1,500 members of Local 237 who are HA workers and 15,000 DC 37 members are also public-housing residents.

Some of the workers attending the rally said that their jobs had gotten more difficult as a result of the budget problems. Nick Greenaway, who has been a Plasterer for 15 years, said that his title's ranks had decreased from about 330 to 220 in the past five years. "We've lost about a hundred people through attrition," he said. "There's no money for materials, nothing. Everything's being taken away. The work is there, and it's just piling up."

Ballot-Box Pressure

Mr. Floyd said that the union was launching a voter-registration drive, alongside community groups, to try to register about 250,000 people who live in public housing and are eligible to vote but don't. "When politicians think people won't vote," he said, "they disregard their needs."

Mr. Floyd said he would be in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 10 and 11 to lobby Members of Congress to add more Federal money into next year's budget, but for now it was up to the city to close the gap.

"We wish we had known that the problem was this severe," he said, "so we had time to act instead of react. I could have been doing this last year if we had known."