Tenants speak out at Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority board meeting

Buffalo, New York — Tenants gathered at the Martha Mitchell Community Center for the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority’s (BMHA) Board of Commissioners meeting on June 18, the first in two months after the previous month’s was canceled due to a purported lack of quorum. 

Before opening for public comment, the board had several agenda items of note. The board heard a presentation from Ehrlich Pest Control, where the company claimed that lack of tenant cooperation was one of the greatest barriers to its work. The board also approved the purchase of biometric time clocks at the cost of $69,120, citing a need to prevent time theft by BMHA employees.

The Board also approved an outside contractor, CVR Associates, to continue servicing their Housing Choice Voucher Program. The company receives a percentage of the administrative fee that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gives BMHA for each voucher they take on. CVR Associate’s representative estimated that they make about $80,000 per month from these administrative fees. 

It must be asked if these are effective uses of public money. How many ways can public money be used to fund private enterprise instead of public good before we demand better?

Tenant and community members raise concerns

Tenants had just listened to a meeting where blame was placed on them for substandard housing conditions, and unbelievable sums of money were approved to be funneled to private companies. They were then able to offer public comment (limited to three minutes apiece) to share the conditions they had been living with and make demands of the BMHA to do better by them. 

While tenants and community members gave their testimony, some members of the board could not even be bothered to look up from their phones, exemplifying their disinterest in hearing from the people they are supposed to serve. Tenants came from multiple different BMHA properties to speak, including the Commodore Perry apartments in downtown Buffalo and the Kenfield-Langfield development in Buffalo’s East Side.

Tenants from both properties raised concerns over ongoing maintenance issues, from mold to infestations to broken elevators and a lack of security. It’s worth noting, tenants have been speaking at these board meetings for months on end without witnessing change. While Ehrlich Pest Control cites lack of tenant cooperation as its barrier to success, tenants and community members raised the poor planning and notice given by the company and BMHA as the source of difficulty. 

David Watts of the Commodore Perry apartments and community member Suzanne Brandi-Wilson cited vacant apartments that have not been cleaned out as an ongoing source of infestation. Tenant organizer John Washington noted how profitable it is for the company to never fully deal with the infestations in a systematic, organized manner. 

Emma Mallory of the Kenfield-Langfield development had moved from another BMHA property because of an infestation, only to move to an apartment that was missing a stove and refrigerator. She asked the board, “Do you guys sleep like that at night?”

The board has 30 days to respond in writing to the comments given, but they owe tenants much more than that. As Brandi-Wilson put it: “You [the board] have all the power, you have all the money, you have all the cards, and yet it’s always somehow the tenant’s fault. … Every single day, there is a tenant who is living in a property that does not meet the warrant of habitability. You are breaking the law!”

The BMHA needs to comply with New York state law and provide safe, accessible housing to its tenants.