Anna Luft, NYLAG’s Director of our Public Housing Justice Project, submitted testimony about FY 26’s preliminary budget to the New York City Council’s Committee on Public Housing, namely urging the increase of capital funding for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA):
NYLAG works closely with community organizations, agencies, and elected
officials, and operates numerous legal clinics in locations such as community centers, courthouses, and hospitals. With the full implementation of Right to Counsel at the NYCHA Office of Impartial Hearings (“OIH”), NYLAG created the Public Housing Justice Project (“PHJP”) within its Tenants’ Rights Unit (“TRU”). NYLAG’s PHJP is the first team of attorneys in New York City solely dedicated to representing NYCHA tenants.PHJP represents tenants in both Section 9 and Permanent Affordability Commitment Together, known as PACT, developments. We urge the City Council to take decisive action to prioritize public housing investment in this year’s budget. NYCHA is the largest landlord in New York City. It is responsible for
approximately 7% of New York City’s rental stock and is home to 1 in 17 New Yorkers. NYCHA apartments are family homes: tenancies are intergenerational and long term, averaging approximately 26 years. As NYCHA correctly notes in its 2025 Fact Sheets, these deep-seated communities are the equivalent of a city unto themselves, with more residents than Miami or Atlanta.However, while analogies to prominent big cities around the country are helpful for
illustrating the sheer size of NYCHA, it is not actually a city itself, separate from the rest of New York. Public housing residents are integral members of our communities: they are our neighbors, colleagues, friends, and classmates. The success of New York City is bound up in the success of NYCHA. For this reason, we are calling on City Council to ensure that NYCHA is fully funded, with safeguards put in place to ensure greater accountability to tenants in order to increase efficiency.
