Residents and community activists gathered Thursday at the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority headquarters for the second time this week to address a myriad of concerns.
The BMHA Board of Commissioners held its monthly meeting and members of the public had sharp criticisms regarding reports of unsafe and unsanitary living conditions, poor communication from the authority, transparency issues and a lack of resident employment opportunities to work on BMHA projects.
Community police officers were on standby to ensure the public commentary period didn’t escalate, as a different board meeting that took place two days prior involved protesters who showed up unexpectedly and clashed with the authority’s commissioners.
BMHA executive director Gillian Brown said that while he disagreed with many of the arguments raised, especially those of non-tenants, he and other board members want to work with residents to make progress.
“We feel that we're doing as good a job as we can right now," Brown said. "There's always room to improve. I mean, this is a very large bureaucracy and, you know, we have 148 employees and 10,000 residents, 4,000 units.”
Board chair Yvonne McCrae said she welcomed the public commentary, even if some of it was disheartening, and that she hopes the authority can work with residents to address their concerns.
“It's not comfortable to hear that we're not at the top of our game all of the time, but if folks would look back at the record of the board, we have always worked to improve, and we'll continue to do that,” McCrae said.
While several members of the public — both residents and non-residents of BMHA — attacked what they described as poor conditions of some of the housing authority's units, administrative members disagreed.
"I don't think that living conditions at the BMHA are deplorable," Brown said.
In 2023, the most recent year for which HUD public housing authority scores were released, BMHA received a score of 62 out of 100, which falls into the HUD designation of "Substandard Performer." The score is just two points above HUD's lowest rating, "Troubled," which BMHA had been designated since receiving a score of 54 in 2018.
Some attendees voiced frustrations about having their concerns unheard while BMHA continues development of the new Commodore Perry homes.
McCrae said criticisms of the redevelopment project weren’t fair and the housing authority is as concerned with addressing the needs of current residents as it is with rehabilitating some of its other complexes.
“The concerns of existing residents are as important as redeveloping sites where our units are, quite frankly, uninhabitable. I think that there is equal emphasis that needs to be placed on both of those things. I don't think that one is more important than the other,” she said.
Tracy McCloud is a resident of the Kenfield development. She said despite being a BMHA resident for 25 years, she only recently learned the board meetings were open to the public. She said a lot of her concerns went unheard until she pursued legal action. Still, she wants to work with — not against — members of the housing authority to see improvements for all residents.
“Sit down and hear me. And then do. Stop ignoring,” she said.
Other members of the public shared McCloud's frustrations of not hearing about important developments, programs and meetings. Brown said while BMHA could work on improving outreach, a lot of information residents seek is publicly available but overlooked or not properly sought.
"In this day and age, I don't think it's a valid criticism to say, 'We don't know when your meetings are because we don't look at your website,'" Brown said. "I don't want to put the onus or the burden on the tenants only, but if the tenants want to know what's happening in their housing authority where they live, then they have an obligation to look at their housing authority's website."
Robin Edwards is both on the BMHA Board of Commissioners and she’s a resident of the housing authority. She advocated for tenants during the meeting, even in opposition of some others on the board at times. She believes progress is possible but she, too, wants to see results.
“We're working on fixing the systems in place, I would hope," she said. "We could just pray that it is done.”
Beyond the public comment session, other developments from the meeting include the review of the authority's fiscal 2026 Annual Agency Plan, which included anticipated financial resources totaling $62 million. The authority also plans to invest millions of dollars into several of its oldest family and senior developments, including:
- Kenfield Homes
- Shaffer Village/LaSalle Courts
- Sedita/Stuyvesant Apartments
- Perry Hight Rises/Slater Courts/Mullen Manor
- Langfield Homes
- Ferry-Grider Homes
- Jasper Parrish
The next BMHA Board of Commissioners meeting is scheduled for April 16, keeping with its normal schedule of holding the meetings on the third Thursday of each month.
