NYCHA Women and the Vote

Throughout March, the contributions women have made to society are honored and recognized during the national Women’s History Month celebration. 

This year’s theme is “Valiant Women of the Vote,” which pays tribute to the women who marched and fought for women’s voting rights, as well as the women of today who continue to advocate for voting rights for all.  

The NYCHA Journal spoke to two women, NYCHA residents actively engaged in their communities in both political and non-political ways to encourage their neighbors to be civically engaged in their communities and exercise their right to vote. 

Genora Bennett Johnson, Frederick Douglass Houses 

How are you engaged in the civic life of your community? 

I’ve been doing the polls since 1995 and I’ve been a Democratic County Committee Member for 20 years, but I was recently appointed to the Board of Directors. I’ve repped certain parts of the district and have been doing that for 10 years; this year I’m repping one of the buildings in Douglass Houses. I also recently graduated from the first class of the Resident Leadership Academy at NYCHA.  

[The Resident Leadership Academy (RLA) is a free, two-year program that provides training and leadership skills to residents interested in taking a more active role in civic life. Launched in 2018, it is a collaboration between NYCHA and the City University of New York’s School of Labor and Urban Studies. Read more about the RLA here: https://nychajournal.nyc/ready-to-lead/.] 

What inspires you to be involved in your community in this way? 

Because knowledge is power. I like knowing what’s going on. Awareness is key, and I think people need to be aware of what is going on in their communities. Even being part of the Resident Leadership Academy – I did that to bring awareness and leadership to the community. I want to be involved in my whole community. 

Why is it important for people, and specifically NYCHA residents, to vote and be civically engaged? 

I’ve been doing elections for years now and we don’t always have a good turnout with NYCHA residents, and they should know how important voting is. It’s important, because to vote is to have the opportunity to have a voice and let your voice be heard. Knowledge is power, and I like to know what goes on in the community because I’m a part of a community. I was on the community board; you have a say in the way the streets are paved, the bike lanes, everything. This is where we live, and we should be a part of all those decisions. 

Shaquana Boykin, Walt Whitman Houses 

How are you actively in the civic life of your community? 

I’m on the board of Fort Greene Park Conservancy and a member of Commodore Barry Park, hosting community events like street tree-care workshops. I connect youth in my community to my civic engagement events, such as making mood boards of the community we vision. I work on policy with sitting senators about non-defense budget items to increase and how to connect more young people. I discuss the importance of voting and why they need to vote, participate in pledge-to-vote events, and I walk around with youth and adults in the community signing up 18 and older adults to register to vote.  

I sit on the Tenant Association Board as Secretary, and I do my best to connect and engage the community on issues that interest them, like food insecurity and lack of jobs. I was hired by the Brooklyn Navy Yard to help with applications and a few Whitman, Ingersoll, and Farragut Houses youth were even hired at 15 years old.  

My team from Public Allies, an AmeriCorps service program I graduated from, told me about a program called New Politics Leadership Academy for people who have done national or military service and are looking to run for office. I took the class and decided to answer the call and run as the only one on record in Kings County that lives in NYCHA that is running for office. I am the Democratic female candidate for District Leader for the 57th Assembly District.  

What inspires you to be involved in your community in this way? 

I want to be part of the change, listen to be intentional, learn, and move us further to the vision of the community we see for ourselves. Most elected officials hold press conferences on our grounds, then leave. I live here, I’m on the board, I go to management or proper channels to get our residents’ issues solved, not blast NYCHA. They can’t fix what you don’t tell them; we have to work together, people power!  

Why is it important for people, and specifically NYCHA residents, to vote and be civically engaged?  

There are over a half million NYCHA residents, and locally that’s powerful and can swing a vote! Our vote weighs in on the future of housing and the issues that matter to us. If we are not civically engaged, we will miss the opportunity for federal and state funding that covers repairs and our basic needs as tenants. In addition, we NYCHA residents are living in a time where our surroundings are changing, rezoning, losing supermarkets to luxury or affordable housing that we cannot afford to live in, street infrastructure needing attention, transportation or lack thereof affecting our daily lives, jobs but lack of job readiness.  

So, to my amazingly resilient NYCHA residents, we have to be civically engaged because we have the lived experience to know intimately what the issues are. Speaking up and working together we have to show the City Council, State Assembly, Senate, and Congress that NYCHA residents matter. We are spread around these five boroughs, 500,000-plus strong.  

I want NYCHA residents to know we are powerful, and more powerful when we seek the change we want together. And we can do that by being civically engaged, such as going to a meeting and taking a neighbor or a young person too. If we’re not at the table, someone else will make our plate – and they don’t eat here, we do!