NYCHA Workshop

A workshop series supporting NYCHA residents to advocate for healthier living conditions and for NYCHA programs that will benefit them and their future.

Public housing in New York City (NYC) is extremely underfunded - for decades the federal government has been steadily reducing the amount of funds it sends to the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), which manages public housing in NYC. Because of this lack of funding, NYCHA buildings now need $40 billion in repairs and residents often live in unlivable conditions.

To empower NYCHA residents and help them advocate for better living conditions, TakeRoot Justice, Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), and WE ACT for Environmental Justice (WE ACT) teamed up with CUP and designer L+L to create the trilingual English, Spanish, and Chinese NYCHA Real Talk toolkit series. The toolkit is a series of short workshops with visual handouts that explain a range of issues around NYCHA, including explaining tenants rights to healthy living conditions, as well as some of the programs NYCHA has proposed that would fund future repairs and how tenants can have say in NYCHA’s future.

Specific workshops in the toolkit include:

  • explaining unhealthy living conditions in NYCHA buildings such as indoor pollutants like mold, lead and pest, how residents can identify them, and hold NYHCA accountable to fixing them;
  • explaining what the “Infill” program is, how it could benefit and harm residents, and how to get involved in fighting for solutions that work for residents;
  • explaining what the “RAD/PACT” program is, how it could benefit and harm residents, and how to get involved in fighting for solutions that work for residents.

TakeRoot Justice, GOLES, and WE ACT and their partner organizations are facilitating the toolkit workshops throughout the city for NYCHA residents.

NYCHA residents give feedback on an early draft of the workshop.
NYCHA residents participate and give feedback at a test workshop.

Check out this project!

If you are interested in the workshops materials created for this project, please contact info@welcometocup.org

Resources and Links:

TakeRoot Justice provides legal, participatory research and policy support to strengthen the work of grassroots and community-based groups in New York City to dismantle racial, economic and social oppression.

Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES) is a grassroots organization that serves, engages, and empowers low- and moderate-income residents of the LES/Loisaida, specifically people of color, through direct services, public education, and community organizing.

WE ACT for Environmental Justice mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices.

L+L is a Brooklyn-based, multidisciplinary visual design studio that works with organizations in mission-driven, arts and cultural spaces.

Special Thanks:

Special thanks to the GOLES and WE ACT community members for their feedback.

Funding Support:

Support for this project is provided by the Oak Foundation.