In a roundtable talk Wednesday night on NY1’s “Inside City Hall” with Errol Lewis and a number of City Council members, Councilman Ritchie Torres, who chairs the Council’s committee on public housing, steered the conversation to the foundational problem in creating comprensive agency wide policy, where city wide funding mandates must be funded by the member allocation dollars by local elected officials, such as NYCHA security measures.
“There’s been some controversy around member items. The only source of funding for secrurit y enhancements in public housing is member items. So when you’re attacking member dollars, you are attacking [the funding source] for security and layered access control in our developments.”
When asked about a better means of funding the measures, Torres agreed member items were not the ideal way to fund the city-wide NYCHA improvements:
“We should have a dedicated funding stream for security cameras, for security intercoms, for security lighting” said the Councilman. “It’s a targeted tool for driving down the crime rate.”
Watch video of the exchange here.
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