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On a June night in 1978, a community organizer named Edward Chambers drove through the shattered bricks and waist-high weeds of the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville, finding his way along streets that no longer had signs. He was expected at a nearby Lutheran church by a group of local clergy. Its members had reached out to Chambers, a disciple of Saul Alinsky, in the hope that he could help them rescue a section of New York so devastated that Boston’s mayor, on a visit, had declared it “the beginning of the end of our civilization.”

Public housing tenants asked a judge Wednesday to step in and make the Housing Authority comply with a year-old vow to clean up nasty mold from apartments.

When the head of the New York City Housing Authority met with residents at a chapel in Brownsville on Tuesday night, there were questions about failing radiators, missing kitchen sinks, moldy walls, broken doors, pigeon excrement and more. These were all part of a more general question: A year into his administration, to what extent is Mayor de Blasio accountable for the continuing maintenance woes at NYCHA, which has been shortchanged by all levels of government for at least a decade?

The housing authority is in “systemic noncompliance” with a court-ordered agreement to clean up the toxic mold that infests so many aging apartments, attorneys for tenants say. A year ago NYCHA entered into a federal consent decree, promising to abate mold in hundreds of apartments where tenants with asthma live to avoid a lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Ac

One in three city Housing Authority tenants say mold in their apartments returns even after NYCHA claims the problem is fixed, according to a city investigation. The ineffectiveness of dozens of these court-ordered “repairs” emerges in an internal report by the city Department of Investigation obtained under the Freedom of Information law by the Daily News. (click link for more)

Urging more dialogue from gun manufacturers, a group of religious leaders backed by more than 60 municipalities – including some in North Jersey – brought their message directly to the Manhattan doorstep of one of the gun industry's biggest financial supporters on Monday, but left disappointed. The group, Do Not Stand Idly By, tried to deliver a letter to the chief executive of Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm with investments in two major gun manufacturers. In six states, teams from the group delivered “requests for information” to seven major gun manufacturers, hoping to learn more about the companies’ distribution practices and efforts to improve gun safety technology. (click link for more)

I am a lifelong organizer—in labor and community settings—and am proud to say that I helped spearhead the living-wage campaign in Baltimore twenty years ago this fall. Our campaign was led by the religious leaders of BUILD—Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation—along with a team of determined low-wage service workers. While we received support from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), this effort was conceived, planned, implemented and owned by local civic and clergy leaders alongside local workers. We won in Baltimore. Then, two years later, with almost no support from organized labor, we won in New York City. And we found that we had sparked a wave of living wage battles in cities and counties across the country that continues to this day. (click link for more)

East Harlem — It’s been six months since two community groups and the New York Housing Authority signed a landmark settlement agreement to address mold and moisture problems in public housing units and three months since a federal judge ordered the new rules into effect. (click link for more)

When Mayor de Blasio appeared last Sunday before 2,200 leaders from Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, he was already beginning to pivot away from his bruising, but successful, struggle to secure pre-K funding and to talk about other important issues, housing being the most prominent. (click link for more)

Six-year old Amanda, who lives in Brownsville, New York and 12-year old Melissa, who lives in East Harlem, New York are struggling with the disease. Their parents, who are desperately trying to alleviate their suffering, and are about to make a devastating discovery. (click link for more)

The landmark federal court settlement between City Hall and mold-plagued The landmark federal court settlement between City Hall and mold-plagued residents of the New York City Housing Authority is a stinging indictment of the horrors inflicted on tenants under the leadership of Chairman John Rhea. (click Link below to read more)

On New Year’s Eve last year, Rossana de la Cuadra wasn’t celebrating. She was in the hospital with her six-year-old daughter, Amanda Santos, who was experiencing yet another severe asthma attack. An inspection of the family’s apartment, in the city-owned Van Dyke building in East New York, Brooklyn, revealed a possible threat to Amanda’s health: heavy mold growth in the bathroom and moisture on the walls, including in Amanda’s bedroom. (click link for more)

EXCLUSIVE: The federal judicial intervention is seen as a step toward resolving NYCHA’s inability to tackle an issue that affects hundreds of tenants citywide. Tenants and their attorneys can now go directly to a judge to slap financial penalties on the agency if it doesn’t get the job done right. (click link for more)

The New York City Housing Authority will take majors steps to address the city’s severe and pervasive mold and moisture problem in its public housing stock, thanks to a settlement agreement reached today in a class action lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice on behalf of affected tenants. This is especially good news for residents with asthma, particularly children and the elderly, whose health has been suffering as a result of mold in their apartments. (click link for more)