Community Voices Heard was bustling on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 21st.
I had just walked in from the busy New York subway system only to be met by an even busier canvass team. Alfredo Carrasquillo, Ferdinand Joseph, Cha’ta Green, Demitrus Gonzales, Philneia Timmons, and Ann Valdez—the CVH Queens canvassers—were collecting their pledge cards, nonpartisan voter guides, and know your rights handouts and ready to hit the streets.
“I am a voice for the voiceless,” said Joseph, a 55-yr old man from the Bronx about why he walks with CVH on this campaign. “I’ll stick my neck out for them. Tenants who live in these projects have issues that need to be addressed and they’re looking for someone to show them how to get it done. In the buildings they live in, there are a lot of problems like tenant issues, no hot water, no heat, and the land lord doesn’t do anything. They feel like they’ve been forgotten.”
What campaign drives Joseph, and the rest of the walk team, into New York City public housing developments to knock on doors and speak to the residents? November 4th, CVH is asking voters to send a message to the next New York State Senator: it’s time to get serious about funding public housing.
CVH’s canvassers are holding conversations with the residents of public housing about the stakes involved in the upcoming senatorial race. They are informing them that the next state senator will have the power to determine how much funding New York State will provide for NYCHA in NYC. They are letting people know that the State Senator can improve the conditions in public housing, and in order for their issues to be heard, they need to show them that they’re voting.
While I was at one of the doors with Alfredo “Red” Carrarasquillo in a Queens public housing development, I had the opportunity to listen to the passionate concerns of such a resident. When Red asked the voter to fill out a pledge card telling the candidates about the concerns of public housing residents, the person wrote, “Everything. Rent, lack of services for youth, and maintenance.” A conversation between Red and the resident ensued. They both understood the realities of living in public housing and could relate to each other on a deeper level about the issues each was facing.
After we left the door, Red turned to me with an ear to ear smile. The resident was very receptive to the message Red delivered. When I asked him why he was smiling he said, “It feels good as hell. It feels like we’ve been friends for years. It’s beautiful.”
Flash forward to Thursday, October 23rd. I am headed on a moving train to Yonkers with Sarah Thomason, the CVH community organizer in Westchester. We are meeting up with two CVH members to walk public housing developments.
“Right now we have a campaign in Yonkers around issues of community development and gentrification,” Sarah explains to me. “They are building developments that low-income people can’t afford and are being pushed out. There’s a lot of affordable housing that’s being lost. So we are fighting for the development to include low-income apartments, to train and hire Yonkers residents, and we’re asking city council to put conditions on the money to preserve public housing. Whoever wins, if they see that we turned out 500 low-income residents, it can definitely be a deciding factor.”
The development Sarah is referring to is planned for Chicken Island and Getty Square. The City Council is about to take a vote on the development and the plan doesn’t include housing or jobs for low-income residents.
It is this very reason that motivates Valerie Pearson, a CVH member and recently elected board member, to speak to her neighbors on this very chilly Thursday evening.
“I am door knocking because the election is coming up and I want the community in Yonkers to get out to vote because voting makes a difference. If we don’t vote, then nothing gets done.”
When we are at the doors, I am struck by her style. She is warm, but frank, and the residents respond positively to her message.
“My style is called burning down the house. I say listen, this is what’s going on. I know you’re tired, I know you work. But at this rate, if they don’t hear our voices, if they don’t know we’re listening, if they don’t know we’re watching, they’re gonna do what they want to do. And we have to stick together at this point in time. It’s crucial. I just tell him do it for your kids, do it for your grandkids. And they can hold it in their hearts that their mom did that, their grandma did that. And it’s important. We work hard. We pay the most taxes. And why shouldn’t we live.”
From these two distinct experiences, I had the fortune of witnessing CVH’s message in action. Community Voices Heard mission is about bringing low-income people together to work collectively for social change. They build their leadership from the people directly affected by the issues and by doing so are building power in these very communities. The strategies I saw employed during these days, i.e. leadership development, voter engagement, and grassroots volunteer recruitment, leads me to believe they will succeed in pushing those in power to implement more fair and equitable policies in New York City and Yonkers!
