The following is an extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

There was poor community turnout when Bronx Community Board 7 (Bronx CB7) reconvened in September to assess the district’s latest needs relating to housing, land use, and economic development during the committee’s first meeting held since the annual summer hiatus.

 

The community board, which covers the neighborhoods of Bedford Park, Fordham, Jerome Park, Kingsbridge Heights, Norwood, and University Heights, held their housing, land use, and economic development meeting on Sept. 10. Excluding the media, there were around 10 people in attendance.

 

The housing committee met quorum and the agenda revolved around planning for the City’s fiscal year 2026 and Bronx CB7’s statement of needs from a a housing and land use perspective. City agency responses to Bronx CB7’s 2023 capital and expense requests and the board’s list of requests for fiscal year 2026 were discussed.

The list includes requests from all Bronx CB7 committees. “As we all know, we went through it diligently and effectively so that we can get responses,” said Bronx CB7 chair Yajaira Arias, who also serves as chair of the housing committee. “For the most part, we did get responses to our requests, and now we have to do the same for the fiscal year 2026,” she added.

 

The capital and expense requests made by the various Bronx CB7 committees last year ranged from more housing; more schools; and more inspections to correcting housing code violations by landlords; upgrades to Devoe Park in Fordham Manor to prevent flooding and other issues; a new community garden at Oliver Place in Bedford Park; more tunnel lighting on East Kingsbridge Road in Kingsbridge Heights and on Bedford Park Boulevard; the expansion of veteran programs; more home-delivered meal services; and free overdose prevention kits.

 

Other requests, part of a long list, included more outreach for the unhoused community; education and services around obesity, STIs, and family planning; expanding emergency food programs; a bus service from Fordham Road to LaGuardia Airport; more school safety agents; more sanitation enforcement; fitness equipment for St. James Park Recreation Center in Fordham Manor; a new 52nd Precinct or sub-precinct stationhouse in Norwood to cope with the growing number of officers (300) who work there; ADA upgrades to the Williamsbridge Oval Recreation Center in Norwood; surveillance cameras in all Community District 7 (CD7) parks; the renovation of Mosholu Playground in Bedford Park; and elevators at Mosholu Parkway subway station.

 

Local runners have long complained about precinct vehicles blocking the sidewalk along Mosholu Parkway close to the 52^nd stationhouse on Webster Avenue due to police vehicle overflow. Meanwhile, City agency responses to many of CB7’s requests were fairly noncommittal e.g. “Further study by the agency [..] is needed” or “Please contact the agency directly [..] for more information.”

For some requests, board members were referred to local councilmembers. In other cases, the responses were that funding for the requests was uncertain. Norwood News covered some of the responses to the various Parks’ requests in a separate story which can be read here.

 

At the housing and land use meeting, the commttee rearranged the various housing-related capital and expense requests in the latest order of priority. In relation to a request to expand rental subsidies, Sandra Erickson, housing committee vice chair, said, “Even the owners/managers are pushing for this, so I kind of have tenants and owners on the same page.”

 

The committee agreed that ongoing rental assistance was also needed to help address homelessness. In relation to improving public housing maintenance and cleanliness, Arias mentioned that her understanding was that Bailey Houses, located at Bailey Avenue and West 193rd Street in Fordham Manor, was the only NYCHA complex in Bronx Community District 7 (Bronx CD7), and that she believed it was being privatized.

 

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the largest public housing authority in North America, was created in 1935 to provide “decent, affordable housing for low and moderate-income New Yorkers” according the agency website. “I’m not sure how we can still be helpful to them if they’re being privatized,” Arias said.

 

Norwood News followed up with NYCHA on whether there were indeed plans to privatize Bailey Houses [or Fort Independence Houses, located at 3340 Bailey Avenue, by Independence Street and Heath Avenue in Kingsbridge Heights, in Bronx Community District 8]. Andrew Sklar, deputy press secretary for NYCHA, responded, saying, in part, “NYCHA’s Northwest Bronx Scattered Sites are not being privatized.”

NYCHA’s Northwest Bronx Scattered Sites include Bailey Houses, Fort Independence Houses, East 180th Street-Monterey Avenue, Harrison Avenue Rehab A and B, Twin Parks East (Site 9), University Avenue Rehab, and West Tremont Avenue-Sedgwick Avenue Area.  According to NYCHA, Bailey Houses and Fort Independent Houses were among the developments selected to be a part of the PACT (Permanent Affordability Commitment Together) program in July 2023.

 

Sklar added, “In order to unlock critical funding for much-needed, comprehensive renovations to over 3,000 homes, the developments are being transferred to Project-Based Section 8 through the PACT program, which will improve living conditions and resident quality of life while resident rights and protections are maintained. NYCHA will continue to own the land and buildings, administer the subsidy and waitlist, and monitor conditions at the developments.”

 

Since 1978, the Housing Choice Voucher program, also known as Section 8, provides assistance to eligible low and moderate-income families to rent housing in the private market. Eligibility for the program is based on a family’s gross annual income and family size. The program works as a rental subsidy that allows families to pay a reasonable amount of their income toward their rent.

 

In May, we reported that NYCHA would begin accepting Section 8 housing choice voucher applications for the first time in 15 years. The waitlist closed on June 9. Click here for more information.

 

Norwood News also reported on the PACT program which, according to City officials, transitions developments from traditional public housing assistance to what is described as a more stable, federally funded, project-based, Section 8 program, unlocking funding for designated PACT partners (in the private sector) to complete “comprehensive repairs.”

 

In 2019, we asked readers living in NYCHA developments in The Bronx their opinion about a prevailing decision for HUD to oversee NYCHA, and New York City’s $2.2 billion commitment for NYCHA repairs over the next decade.

 

Meanwhile, with “strong” support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and New York City Mayor Eric Adams who, as reported, on Friday, Sept. 27, pleaded not guilty in federal court to bribery and other charges following a federal investigation into his campaign finances for his 2021 mayoral election campaign, City officials said PACT is a key tool in the City’s strategy of preserving and upgrading the City’s aging public housing stock.

 

Adams, who is deemed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law, also supported the Small Homes Rehab-NYCHA program, and the Walk to a Park joint partnership program between NYC Parks and NYCHA. The latter focuses on increasing access to parks and open spaces, concentrating on areas of the City that are under-resourced, where residents are living further than a walk to a park.

NYCHA officials said the day-to-day property management responsibilities for Fort Independence Houses and Bailey Houses will be handled by Progressive Management. More information on residents’ rights and protections under the PACT program, can be found here.

 

In 2018, Norwood News reported how a NYCHA tenant, Teisha Jones, continued her fight to increase the standard of living at her Fort Independence Houses apartment. Jones had taken on NYCHA more than once, with a Bronx jury having awarded a $57 million judgment against the agency for failing to inspect her Fort Independence Houses apartment for lead.

 

Conditions left Jones’s 4-year-old daughter developmentally delayed. Her daughter had lead levels ten times the normal rate according to medical reports. Around this time, NYCHA received a rare $550 million infusion of state funds and its CEO resigned. A public awareness campaign by the City about lead poisoning ensued. Norwood News reported on lead-related violations at other non-NYCHA properties in January this year.

 

On Friday, Sept. 27, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced new funding of $90 million to replace lead pipes and protect drinking water in communities across the State. “No New Yorker should be exposed to dangerous toxins in their drinking water,” said Hochul, who recently announced she had been diagnosed with a common form of skin cancer and had a minor surgery to remove it. “These grants are going to help our children and families stay safe and healthy.” Previously, in Sept. 2021, Hochul announced funding of $24 million to also reduce carbon emissions in NYCHA housing.

Back at the CB7 meeting, a discussion took place on whether any new NYCHA projects were planned for CD7. It has since been confirmed by NYCHA that Bailey Houses is the only one. In the context of that discussion, and in reference to ongoing requests by housing groups to the Bronx CB7 housing and land use meetings for the board’s non-objection to various housing developments in the district, committee member Edgar Ramos asked a question.

“Some of these groups, some of these programs, some of these buildings have come to us because they’re part of a program,” he said. “They’re part of a different… you know?” Ramos continued. “Was just asking if any of these buildings were going to be part of NYCHA, because I know NYCHA has public buildings that aren’t…so it doesn’t look like projects…They look like regular apartment buildings but they’re actually NYCHA properties.”

 

Norwood News reached out to NYCHA for feedback on this point and was advised that Bailey Houses is the only NYCHA property in Bronx CD7. We asked NYCHA if the agency [ultimately the City of New York] could confirm if it owns any land, buildings or properties in Bronx CD7 which is / are not “traditional” NYCHA housing projects like Bailey Houses / Fort Independence Houses, but are “regular apartment buildings.” We will share any updates we receive.

 

In other NYCHA-related news, in February, Norwood News reported that 70 current and former NYCHA employees, including eight from The Bronx, were charged in the largest single day bribery / extortion case in federal history, for allegedly accepting cash payments from contractors in exchange for awarding NYCHA contracts at various NYCHA locations across the City.

Among the affected NYCHA complexes located in the north Bronx, according to federal officials, were Gun Hill Houses in Olinville, Eastchester Gardens, Boston Road Plaza, Pelham Parkway, Twin Parks West, Twin Parks East, and 1010 East 178th Street. Federal officials said cash bribes were accepted on site at these and other NYCHA locations, including Marble Hill Houses. “Taking money from the city in general is wrong,” the mayor said in part, after the news broke.

 

Adams’ spokesperson, Charles Lutvak, added, “Anyone who breaks the law in New York City will be held accountable — no matter where they work. But misusing resources set aside for our public housing residents is particularly egregious.” One day prior to that NYCHA extortion news breaking, the mayor had accompanied federal agents on an unrelated early morning raid of NYCHA Parkside Housing Project at Bronx Park East in Allerton where Victor Parra, 30, one of nine people charged in the context of a separate, “elaborate, international, cellphone robbery pattern” lived and was arrested.

 

Later that day, Adams told reporters he had attended the 5.30 a.m. Bronx raid, “because I’m the general, and generals lead from the front.” He continued, “From the onset, we want to be extremely clear. It doesn’t matter if a person is a migrant, asylum seeker, or if the person is a long‑term New Yorker. You break the law, it will be investigated, and it will be handled by our criminal justice system.”

 

Back at the Bronx CB7 meeting, Erickson requested that an expense request relating to pest control and better sanitation also be prioritized since it impacted upon housing also. Other requests included additional resources for NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) to enforce building code violations from a safety standpoint, addressing fire hazards like e-bike storage, and low-cost finances for job creation and retention. Erickson queried what was being done lately to address the City’s e-bike fires and building code violations.

Norwood News has reported on past building code violations and fines imposed by DOB from time to time, as well as on various e-bike safety measures, laws adopted, and other educational campaigns launched in this regard. They followed a spate of e-bike fires across The Bronx and City in recent years.

 

Since the CB7 meeting was held, e-bikes were the suspected cause of another fire, which potentially threatened the landmarked Paradise Cinema building on the Grand Concourse on Sept. 14, and of another fire in Bedford Park on Sept. 28. Meanwhile, we’ve asked DOB for an update on the latest reported building code violations and will share any updates we receive.

 

As also reported, in the wake of the terrifying 1915 Billingsley Terrace partial building collapse in Morris Heights (located outside but in close proximity to Bronx CD7) on Dec. 11, 2023, City Council Member Pierina Sanchez (C.D. 14) led the passage of a new bill (Int. No. 904-A) designed to establish a first-of-its-kind, proactive inspection program at NYC Department of Buildings (DOB).

 

As reported, The Billingsley Terrace Structural Integrity Act was introduced on April 25 in response to that building collapse in which miraculously nobody was injured, but which forced over 150 tenants to lose their homes.

 

At one point during the Bronx CB7 meeting, board member and parks chair, Barbara Stronzer, asked if the Brooklyn-based, nonprofit, social services developer, CAMBA Housing Ventures (CHV), was still overseeing the two large housing developments comprising 323 units on East 202nd and East 203rd Streets, between Valentine Avenue and Briggs Avenue in Bedford Park, and whether all units were rented finally.

 

Stronczer said many neighbors, as reported at the time, had concerns over the project in terms of congestion and overpopulation in the area, which has narrow streets, when it was first being developed, along with a new Girls Prep school which is opening nearby. Norwood News reached out to CAMBA for comment. We did not receive a response.

During a separate discussion, Erikson mentioned that she was aware that some property owners cannot currently afford to upgrade vacant [presumably older] units to comply with current laws and are instead just choosing to keep them empty to avoid any potential lawsuits.

 

On the cost of managing rentals, she said, “Fordham Bedford [Housing Corporation] had eight people evicted, and they don’t want to evict. But they [tenants] stopped paying and owed maybe $400,000 in owed rent, and very low rents by the way. So just to give you a picture of what it’s like on both sides, it’s becoming harder and harder to manage.”

 

Erikson said the hope was that both tenants and owners would work together in the future via the new New York Apartment Association (NYAA), led by the former Bronx assemblyman for A.D. 85, Kenny Burgos to avoid evictions and other conflicts.

 

 

The date of the next Bronx CB 7 housing & land use meeting will be Tuesday, Oct. 8.