Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live On NY1’s “Mornings On NY1”

December 15, 2023

Pat Kiernan: The results of a vote among residents of NYCHA's Nostrand Houses in Brooklyn have now been certified: a majority of Nostrand Houses residents decided the best path forward for their complex is to enter what's called a Public Housing Preservation Trust.

Under the terms of the agreement, the trust will be permitted to issue public bonds; those can be used to fund repair projects, that's something that can't be done under the status quo of Section 9 housing. The trust will also be permitted to hire outside vendors to complete work rather than depend on in-house NYCHA workers.

The city says this trust model is going to make it easier to tap into federal funding streams and rents will be capped, still, at 30 percent of tenant income. A key supporter of this trust approach for public housing has been Mayor Adams. He joins now along with the deputy mayor for Housing Maria Torres-Springer. Thank you both for being here.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Great to be here.

Kiernan: Let's begin with a question about this trust arrangement. Why do you think, Mayor Adams, that the Nostrand Houses will be better off under this arrangement?

Mayor Adams: Tenant control. And we are tapping into federal dollars to ensure that NYCHA residents will finally have an opportunity to see a real recovery in NYCHA. NYCHA currently is experiencing multi-billions of dollars in capital improvements, and we've heard it over and over again that the calvary is coming, the calvary is coming. And just those bugles you're hearing, that is not the cavalry coming, that's really Taps.

NYCHA was dying, and we said, not in this administration. And we started out included in our housing plan - actually, at the top of our housing plan - and Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer and her team just really knew that a PACT and the trust are two ways that we can actually start tapping into these resources.

Kiernan: Deputy Mayor, I want to ask you about this. This is not going to be an overnight transformation, I don't think there's not much in NYCHA in the past two decades that's been an overnight transformation. But what what's a reasonable time frame here to see meaningful change?

Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Housing, Economic and Workforce Development: Well, first of all, Pat, you're right that this won't be overnight, but it's also well overdue. We're talking about 520,000 New Yorkers who live in NYCHA housing. That's larger than Miami, than Sacramento, than Atlanta. And for too long after decades of disinvestment we are now fortunately in the position where we have the tools, and we are using them with the type of urgency and velocity that's needed.

And so with the historic vote that was certified last night, for example, at Nostrand Houses in Sheepshead Bay, the residents have voted overwhelmingly for change. More than 80 percent voted for either the trust or the PACT program. And these are two new critical pathways that unlock more federal funding and put the projects on a more sustainable path.

For the Nostrand Houses in particular, it will take approximately one and a half to two years to really complete the conversion and start the repairs, but we're going to move as quickly as possible because time isn't our friend in terms of making sure that we're doing… We're making the quality of life repairs and investing for future generations of NYCHA residents, which we're now able to do because of the leadership of the mayor and the partnership of NYCHA residents across the five boroughs.

Kiernan: But can you deliver? There's been a lot of false expectations or high expectations and false hopes here. What makes this different?

Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer: Well, number one, because we have from day one - and we'll continue to do this - really centered the voices of residents. If you look at the vote, Pat, right, more than 50 percent of NYCHA residents at Nostrand Houses voted. That's an overwhelming turnout. And as I mentioned, 80 percent voted for change.

But what we're also seeing in the last year are many records that were broken by this administration by NYCHA that show the progress that's needed after, frankly, too many decades of slow progress, whether those are investment records, number of units closed through both of these programs. You look at the fundraising records for the public housing community fund and many other initiatives.

So, we're at a critical turning point. NYCHA residents deserve no less, and we'll continue to work with the type of speed and care while centering residents' voices, because they deserve that.

Kiernan: Yes. Well, one thing you know is that NYCHA residents will hold you accountable and demand that there are improvements.

Mayor Adams: Yes, they will.

Kiernan: I've seen you out there at the town halls before with the… Mayor Adams, I've got a number of other things on my mind here. You introduced a new Correction commissioner this week…

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Kiernan: And immediately there was this court ruling. She was out there at the end of the day yesterday dealing with the reporters who had questions about the contempt of court ruling. Have you set her up in an impossible job? This is a tough spot to be in.

Mayor Adams: And she's a tough person. I am really excited about her. Right now I believe what Correction needed was not only a good person that understood the history after eight years of being at the Department of Correction under previous administrations and realizing what are some fault lines and how we can correct them.

And just her demeanor, her skill set. As an attorney, she understands the technical aspects of this. But the history that she brings, and I am just really excited about her. Even the monitor and the judge, they acknowledge that this is a good step towards the right direction.

And you know, what is ever going to happen with the receivership or not, that's something that everyone is going to have to work out. But right now, we need to make sure we create a safe environment for the inmates and the officers. Oftentimes we forget about the officers who are there who have gone through some very difficult times.

Kiernan: You wrote a guest column for the Daily News that was published this morning. You're making a new pledge that this city is committed to closing Rikers, but you wrote that Rikers must be closed the right way. What does that mean to close the right way? Is it the timetable, is that the process?

Mayor Adams: It's a combination of things. Idealism can't collide with realism. We want Rikers closed, but it has to be done correctly. Like right now, Pat, because of the timeline we cannot do capital improvements in [Rikers] when you look at the restroom facilities and other things that Rikers needs done to actually make it livable.

So, our goal is to get everyone to the table, look at the correct timeline, look at the dollar amount that's attached and make sure that we can close it the right way. And which I'm a big believer in, let's deal with the fact of the mental health aspect of some of the inmates. Over 50 percent of them are dealing with mental health issues. Jails should not be used as psychiatric facilities, and we must come up with a good plan to really deal with this issue that's in front of us.

Kiernan: Mayor Adams, I was in a building after the doorman recognized me from TV. And he said… Unprompted, he said, Pat, what's up with this mayor?

You know, there have been so many headlines surrounding you. You have said I want to get past the distractions and run the city. But there are some people out there who voted for you asking questions. What do you say to them?

Mayor Adams: Yes, there's people out there who voted for me who are asking questions, but there are people out there who voted for me who say, Eric, keep moving in the direction that you're doing. We know crime is down and we know jobs are up. We know that we have some serious W's that we have placed on the board.

And we also know that New Yorkers are angry. We can't kid ourselves. They are angry about what they're seeing, the national government has basically turned its backs on this asylum seeker crisis.

And look, I'm the mayor, so people are going to point to the mayor, any headline that I receive and things that take place. And listen, I'm very clear on something. I've never said I want to get past this distraction, because distractions are always going to be in this city.

The mayor must be able to govern with distractions and with things that are taking place. And that's what I'm going to do and I'm going to continue to navigate us outside this problem. But I understand the anger of New Yorkers because I'm angry as well. But with that anger is a continuing motivation to move our city forward.

Kiernan: I saw you out there in the Bronx after the facade collapse a couple of days ago. It really made it clear that landlords who try to avoid the law and avoid doing repair work for years don't face any real consequences. Sometimes it's just a matter of paying for the scaffolding to stay up for years. What can you do, what can the City Council do to really better enforce these building safety regulations?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think there's a number of things that we can do. First of all, utilizing technology is one of them. I talk about it all the time. We can now use drones with infrareds, I think we could expedite some of the building inspections. Those infrared cameras can identify cracks, they could identify problems with outside issues with buildings.

It's something we're looking to introduce. We use it now for bridge inspections and other ways. We want to see how we can more incorporate it into our buildings inspections.

But we also want to put everything on the table on how do we have outside professionals, not only a governmental agency but bonded professionals going out and expediting and ensuring that these inspections are done. That's some of the things that Commissioner Oddo is doing.

You know, our building stock, in many cases, it's an older building stock and so we need to make sure the upkeeps are there. And upkeep is not seeing scaffolding around the building for years. Our scaffold and shed reform is moving us away from seeing the sheds around buildings for years.

Kiernan: Mayor Adams, you've got a lot of things going on. We didn't give you… Didn't have time to talk about the migrant crisis in any direct way. But we appreciate you both making time for us this morning.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Kiernan: Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer…

Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: Thanks so much.

Kiernan: ...Mayor Adams, thanks for being with us.

Mayor Adams: Take care.

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