Mayor de Blasio Discusses NextGen Neighborhoods
NYCHA continued its series of discussions with residents about NextGen Neighborhoods with a town hall at Wyckoff Gardens in Brooklyn on January 11. Mayor Bill de Blasio attended the forum with Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye and General Manager Michael Kelly to discuss NYCHA’s plan to build 50 percent affordable and 50 percent market-rate housing at the developments on underutilized land.
The Mayor and the Chair took questions from residents for nearly two hours, not only about the NextGen Neighborhoods proposal, but also about repairs at the development, funding issues, and other resident concerns.
NYPD Housing Chief James Secreto and officers from the local precinct were in attendance to field questions regarding law enforcement. Borough President Eric Adams and Stephen Levin, the City Council Member representing Wyckoff Gardens, also answered some questions.
Mayor de Blasio and Chair Olatoye emphasized that the NextGen Neighborhood program will not privatize any public housing, deprive any current resident of his or her housing, or raise anyone’s rent. Rather, the program will generate funding to help repair the existing housing at NextGen Neighborhood developments. (See Top Ten Myths about NextGen Neighborhoods on page 5.)
NYCHA will continue to meet and discuss these projects with all of the residents at NextGen Neighborhood developments. Additional community engagement meetings are scheduled for Wyckoff Gardens and Holmes Towers in March.
