Below are a series of summaries of articles that have been published about Community Voices Heard and the work that we do. Some are accounts of our actions, some are regarding issues we organize around, while others are simply articles that our members have been quoted in. You can download the full articles by clicking on the PDF files that are attached to the bottom of the summaries. Coverage is posted in reverse chronological order. For earlier press coverage check out our Press Coverage From Earlier Years.
Community Voices Heard participated in a large May 1st rally with the Teamsters Local 237 union, the union that represents maintenance workers in NYCHA buildings. CVH leader and public housing resident Agnes Rivera spoke at the rally sharing the stage with many elected officials, union members, and supporters of public housing. We were rallying to demand that funding be restored for public housing both to preserve jobs for the teamsters as well as preserve housing for the residents. Attached to this post is a copy of an article written by Daily News Columnist Errol Louis that gives a good impression of the rally.
This is a story about the public hearing that CVH members testified at. The press conference CVH members held prior to the hearing is mentioned and CVH member Valerie Pearson is quoted.
This is selected pages from the Spring issue of City Limits Investigates. The full issue can be purchased from City Limits here. City Limits is a non-profit magazine that focuses on policy. This issue is about poverty policies and Community Voices Heard and its members are quoted throughout the issue.
This is an article that appeared into today's Gotham Gazette. The article is about how the economic slump has affected the workforce. The article speaks about welfare programs and whether or not they are effective at helping to move people into the workforce. Community Voices Heard board member and leader in the Welfare/Workforce Campaign Ketny Jean-Francois is quoted in this article. The article is attached below or can be found on the Gotham Gazette's website.
Here is an article that appeared on the front page of the New York Times Metro Section this Sunday. The article highlights Tino Hernandez, Chairman of New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), as a former NYCHA resident. The article discusses the affects of disinvestment on public housing and mentions demolitions in other cities. Community Voices Heard Leader and Public Housing resident of Lincoln Houses Keith Massey is quoted in this article.
This is an article about our recent march to City Hall in Yonkers published in the Home News & Times on Friday, February 22. CVH member and Yonkers resident Adrienne Knight is quoted in the article.
This is an article about the recent march in Yonkers. We were the front page article in this issue of the Westchester Guardian. The article is split into two PDF files that you can see below, the first is the photo from the paper's cover and the second is the article.
This is an article that was put in the Journal News about the march that Community Voices Heard held in Yonkers, NY to demand that no more public housing is demolished, and that the city include housing and jobs for low-income families in the plans for development in Getty’s Square. The cold and the snow couldn't stop CVH members from coming out to have their voices heard! CVH member and Yonkers resident Shateema Sherrill is quoted in the article.
This is an article in today's New York Metro about Republican Presidential Candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and how he lost the Florida primary last night. As a result of his loss in Florida, he will be most likely quitting the race for the White House. The article focuses on all of the negative things Giuliani did while he was Mayor of New York including a quote about the WEP program from Community Voices Heard Board Member, Yvonne Shields.
This article is an editorial by Errol Louis regarding New York State Governor Spitzer considering to raise the pay of the state Legislature, which is currently $79,500 a year. The article quotes CVH Members Ann Michelle Valdez, a Brooklyn Public Housing Resident, and Harold Gardner, a CVH member from our Poughkeepsie chapter. Our members helped to point out that those receiving public assistance have not seen an increase in the welfare cash grant since 1990 and if the Governor is considering giving an increase for the pols he should also consider giving an increase in benefits for the poor.
Here is a packet of our press coverage for all of 2007. We took all of the articles from 2007 and digested it into two PDF files to make the downloads smaller.
Recently reporters from the BBC came to New York to find out about WEP and how it works here. They were interested in WEP because there is talks of instituting a similar system in Britain and they wanted to find out what people here thought about the program. They interviewed Anita Graham, the Welfare / Workforce Organizer at Community Voices Heard you can check out this link for the video.
You can also read the article and see other videos the BBC made relating to what is going on in Britain on the BBC website. Click this link for the BBC website.
This is an article about a march that Community Voices Heard participated in. The march was organized by Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito and a coalition of grassroots organizations in East Harlem. For more information about the march you can read the article on our website, "CVH Marches with the East Harlem Anti-Displacement Task Force" and the Daily News Article below.
This is a segment from The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. This segment is based on the Errol Louis Daily News article from Thanksgiving Day, "Pass the Praise Please" in which Mr. Louis offers thanks and praise to activists he has met including CVH Leader Agnes Rivera. Agnes is featured on the segment and she speaks about Community Voices Heard as well as public housing issues.
Two members, Ann Valdez and Agnes Rivera, and one Staff, Mike Selick, went to Miami Florida this weekend to join with students, unions, and other grassroots organizations to march in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in a 9 mile march against Burger King. The CIW is demanding that Burger King pay their workers just 1 penny more for one pound of tomatoes. McDonald's and Taco Bell have already agreed to the workers demands but Burger King refuses to negotiate. These workers are working 16 hour days for often only $55. They are living in trailers with 15 to 20 people sleeping wherever they can. Check out the link below to read more about the march or read any of the articles that are attached to this post including an New York Times Editorial by Eric Scholsser, the author of "Fast Food Nation".
This is an article that was printed in the Thanksgiving issue of the Daily News. It is an editorial by Errol Louis that offers thanks and praise to activists he has met. He mentions Community Voices Heard as well as CVH Leader Agnes Rivera.
This article is from City Limits and is about the Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) changing the poverty line for NYC. New York is an expensive city and the poverty lines that make sense for other parts of the country may not make sense for people in our city. Community Voices Heard Leader Marilyn Bezear and Community Voices Heard Board Member Sandra Killet are both quoted in this article.
Here is an article from The Daily Gotham blog. This article comes on the heels of a posting a few days ago titled, "NYCHA's Phony Fiscal Crisis" where the author does a good job of breaking down the budgetary problems NYCHA is currently facing. This new story, "Will NYC Save Public Housing, Sell it, Or Sell It To Save It?", talks about Sean Moss' (the NY Regional Director of HUD) comments at the recent public housing forum at the New School where he advocated for the selling of NYCHA properties. The article mentions Community Voices Heard Leader and Public Housing Resident Agnes Rivera who spoke on the panel at the New School Forum. You can read the article using the attachment below or directly on the Daily Gotham blog by clicking the link.
This is a letter to the editor of The New York Sun that Community Voices Heard Leader and public housing resident Agnes Rivera wrote. The original article is below as well. The article advocates for NYCHA to sell some of their land to developers so that they can be turned into luxury condominiums. Agnes wrote about how public housing is an important part of our city and should be valued.
This article appeared on http://www.citylimits.org. It is about the WeCARE program and talks about the report put out by Community Voices Heard. You can read the article by downloading the PDF below and you can read the CVH report on our website at this link.
Here is a report from WNYC New York Public Radio about the recent City Council Hearing about Welfare and the WeCARE program. They quoted Community Voices Heard member Tyletha Samuels talking about how the program failed to exempt her from work for long enough to recover from her knee surgery.
This is an article about the WeCARE hearings. They quote Community Voices Heard member Ann Valdez as well as discuss problems with the WeCARE program that we uncovered in our report, "Failure to Comply: The Disconnect Between Design and Implementation in HRA's WeCARE Program". The article is from El Diario and is in Spanish.
This article is about the WeCARE program and how it does not work. It mentions the report that we put out about the WeCARE program and they quote Ann Valdez, a Community Voices Heard leader, as well as Alexa Kasdan, the CVH Polilcy & Research Associate.
You can download the attached article as a PDF and you can view the report referenced in this article on our site at http://cvh.mayfirst.org/node/145
Here is an article from the City Limits website. It covers the recent City Wide Public Housing Rally as well as discusses the Section 8 Housing Voucher Reform Act of 2007 (SEVRA). CVH Leader Ann Valdez is quoted in this article.
This is an article about the City Wide Public Housing Rally at City Hall Park last week. This article talks about how underfunding of Public Housing is leading to the loss of jobs in Maintenance and other areas essential to Public Housing. Those workers who have not been laid off have a more difficult job now that they have more work that needs to be done. Many of the NYCHA workers are public housing residents as well as workers.
Here are two articles about the City Wide Public Housing Rally. This first article is from the online edition of the Columbia Spectator and they quote CVH leader Ann Valdez.
This article discusses the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) budget deficit and how it is affecting NYCHA workers and residents. It also mentions the City Wide Public Housing Rally we are hosting as well as the Section 8 Housing Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA).
This article is about the suggested new MTA fare hike. Once again the MTA is going to raise the price of the subway and buses, this time a single ride may go up to $2.25. This raised fare will effect all New Yorkers, but for low-income New Yorkers who are already struggling to make ends meet this raised fare will make a big difference in their lives. Community Voices Heard leader Ketny Jean-Francois is quoted in this article.
This is a video from Democracy Now, it is in real player format and you will need that player in order to watch the video. You can download this player for free at http://www.realplayer.com/ if you do not already have it on your computer. The video is coverage from the take over of the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) that Community Voices Heard took part in.
This article talks about the Shelter Allowance bill and how it is a good step in the right direction, but NYCHA needs more money in order to get out of debt. Council Person Rosie Mendez is quoted about the state of NYCHA.
Here are two articles from the Times Picayune, the paper in New Orleans. They deal with the take over of the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO). This was part of the GGJ Survivors Tribunal that Community Voices Heard participated in.
This article is from the District Council 37 (DC 37) newspaper. DC 37 is the union that represents Public Housing Workers, they have been working with Community Voices Heard in order to secure funding for Public Housing because they are at risk of losing their jobs because of lack of funding. This article talks about the recent victory with Governor Elliot Spitzer signing the Shelter Allowance Bill and the Public Housing Constituency Tour that CVH organized.
Sandra Killett, Co-Chair of CVH is in this WNYC radio piece. She was spoken to as a recipient of the Cash Incentives program, but while personally she is pleased to get additional resources into her household, politically and organizationally she challenges its very design and purpose. Below is the segment from WNYC with Sandra as well as the full text.
This is a segment from The Brian Lehrer show on WNYC. Agnes Rivera, a Community Voices Heard Leader and long time resident of Public Housing is on a panel of people to talk about Public Housing and NYCHA. Errol Lewis of the Daily News is standing in for Brian Lehrer for this segment because Brian was on vacation.
Governor Elliot Spitzer signed the Shelter Allowance Bill. This is a huge victory for Community Voices Heard and Public Housing. This will provide $47 million in funding annually to NYCHA.
Here are two more articles that were printed about our Constituency Tour of Public Housing. The first one was printed in "The Chief" the DC 37 union paper and the second article was printed in the Amsterdam News and is written by Zita Allen.
CVH members brought elected officials and the media on a tour of two housing developments in Harlem, Wagner and Drew Hamilton. The tour was to highlight the effects of government disinvestment in public housing. New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is facing a large deficit as a result of underfunding on the State and Federal levels. As a result of this they are raising rents, not doing vital maintenance, selling off property, and they may be laying off up to 2000 maintenance workers. There are 2 Articles, 1 radio piece from WNYC, and 1 Op Ed from Daily News writer Errol Lewis (check out this one, it's the best article written about this event).
This article discusses security in Public Housing in Yonkers. The article also discusses a tour of Yonkers public housing and other community sites that Community Voices Heard Organized for State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins. CVH Member Valerie Pearson is quoted in the article.
This is an article from the ABQ Journal. The article is about The People's Caravan to the US Social Forum organized by Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP). Community Voices Heard Member Agnes Rivera was quoted in the article. Here is a link to the article on the SWOP blog and attached is the original article from the journal.
CVH is a part of the New York Is Our Home Coalition, a coalition of organizations in NYC that is fighting to create and preserving affordable housing. Nearly 5,000 people surrounded the Stuy Town development, a housing development that was sold to developers who are planning on making units market rate. Housing groups from across the city held hands and made a full ring around Stuy Town and then marched down 14th Street to Union Square.
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is facing a huge deficit this year. As a result they are being forced to raise rents and cut services. This poses a large problem for low-income New Yorkers who live in public housing. Public housing represents one of the last strong holds of affordable housing in this city. CVH member and public housing campaign leader Agnes Rivera is quoted.
4 articles that speak about the report we published exposing issues with the WeCARE program. You can read the full report in the reports section of our website or you can read what the media has to say about our report here.
This PDF file is all of our press coverage for 2006. We took all of the our press coverage and digested it into one file so that you can see everything that the media has been saying about us for the entire year.
Verna Eggleston the Commissioner of the Human Resources Administration (HRA) is resigning in order to work for the Bloomberg Family Foundation. CVH Board Co-Chair Sandra Killet is quoted in the article. Although we were optimistic when Verna Eggleston took over as Commisioner from Jason Turner, essential changes in the City's workfare program were not made during her time at HRA.
Mayor Bloomberg plans on creating a new center to deal with poverty in New York City. This will be called the Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) and Bloomberg plans on using private funds to finance the center's more experimental programs. There will be an emphasis on rewarding "good behavior" and promoting self-sufficiency. CVH Member Gloria Walker is quoted about her views of the Mayor's new commission.
These are 4 articles about Mayor Michael Bloomberg's anti-poverty commission, the Commission for Economic Opportunity (CEO). The articles talk about how the CEO plans on putting emphasis on dealing with 3 very specific groups: young children, young adults, and the working poor.
CVH held a press conference at Columbus Circle on the same day that the Federal Census Bureau released its annual poverty statistics in order to highlight issues with the Mayor's Commission for Economic Opportunity the main commission that deals with poverty in New York City. After the press conference CVH members entered the Time Warner building demanding to speak with Richard Parsons, the CEO of Time Warner, and a Co-Chair of the Commission for Economic Opportunity. Both articles include quotes from CVH members.
These are two articles about Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Commission for Economic Opportunity (CEO). This Commission was formed by the Mayor in January and is supposed to be researching and developing plans to combat poverty in New York City. The mayor insisted that the Commission focus on plans that have proven to work and to narrow the scope of their work to children, young adults, and the working poor.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg heard recommendations for a variety of new plans to deal with poverty from his Commission for Economic Opportunity (CEO). Although nothing has been decided upon yet one proposal included a "Starbucks One-Stop" where individuals could get help with everything from legal work to Food Stamps. CVH Member Ketny Jean-Francois is quoted.
This article compares and contrasts Mayor Michael Bloomberg's approach to Welfare Reform and anti-poverty initiatives and those of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. CVH is referenced as an organization that is studying New York City's anti-poverty initiatives to figure out whether or not they are effective.
CVH Public Housing Campaign members acted out a skit at City Hall to protest the raising of rents by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). This year NYCHA is reporting a 170 million dollar deficit and they are raising rents and cutting services in order to save money.
Members of CVH preformed a skit in Albany where Governer George E. Pataki was the grim reaper and his cuts in services caused the death of those who rely on welfare to survive. CVH Board Member Yvonne Shields is quoted.
The gap between the rich and poor in New York City is enormous. This article discusses this fact and goes into how Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants the Human Resources Administration (HRA) to improve its services. Sondra Youdelman (CVH's Policy & Research Director) is quoted in this article about the report CVH recently released.
