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The breakfast roundtable was at Morrisania Air Rights Houses on East 159th Street and Park Ave. Photo by Emily Swanson<\/p>\nRep. Maxine Waters of California, who is serving her seventeenth term in Congress, made an appearance in the Bronx on April 19, joining a breakfast roundtable with Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres and NYCHA leaders.<\/p>\n
Waters, often affectionately called \u201cAuntie Maxine,\u201d heard directly from NYCHA resident leaders in Torres\u2019 district, along with NYCHA CEO and COO Lisa Bova-Haitt and Eva Trimble.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the breakfast gathering at Morrisania Air Rights at East 159th Street and Park Ave., the Congress Members and NYCHA officials mainly listened as Bronx tenant representatives from several developments took the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The developments represented were Clay Avenue, Melrose Houses, St. Mary\u2019s Park Houses, Patterson Houses, Morris Houses, Sedgwick Houses, Eastchester Gardens, McKinley Houses, Gun Hill Houses and Webster Houses.<\/p>\n
The breakfast roundtable was at Morrisania Air Rights Houses on East 159th Street and Park Ave. Photo by Emily Swanson<\/p>\n
Tenant leaders discussed the many challenges faced by NYCHA residents, ranging from scaffolding<\/a> in place too long and outdated surveillance cameras<\/a> to broader concerns about privatization and tenant empowerment.<\/p>\n The event was cordial despite some disagreements, but some city leaders and roundtable attendees have been vocal in calling out NYCHA for poor conditions, including broken elevators, water leaks, vacant units, rodent infestations<\/a> and even major structural collapses like the explosion<\/a> at Mitchel Houses last October.\u00a0<\/p>\n Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has called NYCHA the city\u2019s worst landlord<\/a> due to underfunding and fiscal mismanagement<\/a>, and NYCHA tenants rallied<\/a> to make their voices heard at Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s recent \u201cRental Ripoff\u201d hearings, which focused mainly on privately-owned buildings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Bova-Haitt and Trimble\u2019s combined salaries total nearly $677,000, according to the government transparency website SeeThroughNY.<\/a><\/p>\n Torres said NYCHA is \u201coften a punching bag for criticism\u201d but that its leaders are working hard to improve conditions.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n The Congressman, who was raised in public housing, where his mother still lives, said the battle for public housing was personal. \u201cI\u2019m not only fighting for my community, I\u2019m fighting for my family.\u201d<\/p>\n NY-15 has the highest concentration of public housing residents in the country and is \u201cground zero for the humanitarian crisis that every one of you are experiencing in public housing every single day,\u201d Torres said.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said the United States\u2019 public housing system has more than $200 billion in capital needs but is \u201csavagely starved of funding.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n No one understood the challenges more than the Bronx roundtable attendees, which Torres called \u201cthe most important room in America\u201d when it comes to public housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n NYCHA: bigger than Atlanta\u00a0<\/p>\n NYCHA\u2019s operating budget heavily depends on the federal government, and past shortfalls, combined with the cost of maintaining aging infrastructure, make the system highly sensitive to any federal cuts, according to the Independent Budget Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n In recent years, Waters introduced bills that included $150 billion in affordable housing investments<\/a>, but they did not advance through the legislature under Donald Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n Waters is the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, which she formerly chaired, becoming the first woman and African American to do so. The powerful committee oversees how federal dollars are spent on public housing, along with other crucial economic stability factors such as banking, international finance, insurance, currency, credit and more. Torres also serves on the committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n Waters said she was \u201cdelighted\u201d by the invitation to the Bronx and said of Torres, \u201cNo matter whatever else he\u2019s into, he\u2019s into public housing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Bova-Haitt said she has worked closely with Torres on funding concerns. NYCHA\u2019s population of well over half a million makes it larger or as large as some major cities like Orlando and Atlanta, \u201cbut we don\u2019t have the tax base,\u201d Bova-Haitt said.<\/p>\n She said NYCHA is facing a 14% cut in operating dollars \u2014 a concern made even more acute by the city\u2019s low vacancy rate, which means residents have few options for where to live, especially at lower rents<\/p>\n One resident, Father Frank Skelly of Immaculate Conception Church, spoke of ways to work around the limitations of the current NYCHA system.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n He spoke in favor of the Ombudsman Call Center<\/a> (OCC), which is independent of NYCHA and addresses residents\u2019 complaints<\/a> about water leaks and mold when NYCHA is not responsive.\u00a0<\/p>\n Skelly said the OCC has served 32,000 units, which is only a fraction of the need. He said expanding the OCC and promoting it to residents \u2014 many of whom are currently unaware of the option \u2014 could greatly improve housing conditions.<\/p>\n At the same time, Skelly said he would never seek to dissolve NYHCA.\n<\/p>\n \u201cNYCHA is the best solution for public housing in New York City. We\u2019re looking to make it better,\u201d he said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Torres said the OCC is effective and should be in every development. He added, \u201cNYCHA may not agree,\u201d but Bova-Haitt did agree that the ombudsman is effective.\u00a0<\/p>\n Danny Barber, who leads the citywide council of NYCHA presidents, called on residents to report housing problems to the OCC and other entities and live responsibly on the properties.<\/p>\n At the same time, he called himself NYCHA\u2019s \u201cbiggest adversary\u201d and said he\u2019s not afraid to bombard the agency with emails addressing concerns.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe ask NYCHA to treat us, at all times, as we count. Not just when special guests come,\u201d Barber said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n To privatize or not to privatize? \u00a0<\/p>\n One point of contention during the roundtable was privatization, with some leaders expressing grave concerns about private managers taking over NYCHA properties and others saying it has worked wonders.\u00a0<\/p>\n Keith Ramsey of Eastchester Gardens said Wavecrest Management took over<\/a> last year under the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program and \u201ctransformed\u201d the property \u201cfrom a lowly caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly.\u201d<\/p>\n Ramsey said he was initially skeptical of having a private manager take over the second-oldest NYCHA property in the Bronx \u2014 but has been thrilled with the results.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the other hand, Dana Elden of St. Mary\u2019s Park Houses said she was worried that residents dilute their power under private companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n She called for more traditional Section 9 housing support instead of Section 8 conversions. After seeing examples of privatization, Elden said she was convinced that residents in other public housing programs \u201cdon\u2019t have the power or the rights that they used to have in Section 9.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Elden expressed concern that there are \u201cno set standards\u201d that private managers must follow. \u201cWe want to keep our rights. We want to keep the ability to govern within our walls,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Elden pressed Waters to find more NYCHA funding, which has generally been \u201cneglected for many years.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Another point of debate was surveillance cameras on NYCHA properties.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Several leaders expressed a need for new cameras, reigniting the debate<\/a> over how the footage is used \u2014 and by whom.\u00a0<\/p>\n Regina Carter at Morris Houses, which has more than 4,000 residents, said her property\u2019s cameras are horribly outdated.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been told by the police that a person could be raped, robbed and murdered in full view of the camera, and they would have difficulty seeing it,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Torres said he will work on funding for cameras \u2014 but other leaders were more wary of their purpose.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cCameras are not for the criminals, they\u2019re for you. So they can watch you,\u201d said Elden at St. Mary\u2019s Park Houses.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u2018Democracy at work\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n As the event wrapped up, Waters applauded the variety of perspectives and said it was \u201cdemocracy at work.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n She vowed to continue working closely with Torres on the House Committee and to remain a fierce advocate for public housing.\n<\/p>\n Waters recalled the 33-tower Pruitt-Igoe<\/a> development, demolished in her hometown of St. Louis in 1972, and said government should work to prevent similar situations.<\/p>\n \u201cThey lost all of those units, and they\u2019ve never been replaced,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n Waters said she\u2019s working on a massive $1 trillion bill that includes a \u201csubstantial amount\u201d for public housing \u2014 but added she still hasn\u2019t landed on a great solution for tenants who cannot afford to pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n After the discussion, Barber said he was thrilled to have Waters\u2019 ear. He said he had \u201cthought it was all lost, that no one in Congress wanted to hear us out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo have such a strong, positive woman to come is a monumental moment,\u201d Barber said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Cassandra Bowlin, who has lived in Melrose Houses for more than 50 years, said she was also pleased to hear from Waters in the Bronx.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Residents must use their voice to speak up, and improving NYCHA requires \u201cpeople on the ground floor to make it happen,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ll keep on fighting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Reach Emily Swanson at\u00a0eswanson@schnepsmedia.com<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0(646) 717-0015<\/a>. For more coverage, subscribe to our\u00a0newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260419_120019-rotated.jpg\")
Torres greeted public housing tenant leaders from his district, which has 58 NYCHA developments. Photo by Emily Swanson<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260419_120445-rotated.jpg\")
Waters greeted Elden and other tenant association presidents after the program, before heading to more events with Torres in the Bronx. Photo by Emily Swanson<\/p>\n