Will you protect this house? (Matt Chaban)

Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries convened a press conference yesterday calling for a federal investigation of mismanagement of the New York City Housing Authority. Mr. Jeffries and about 50 of his constituents were lined up in front of the Farragut Houses, wedged between the BQE and the luxury lofts of DUMBO.

Throughout the half-hour event, while away from the podium, the would-be Congressman, dressed in a navy suit with subtle pinstripes and geometric red tie, would dip his hand into his pocket and withdraw a blue handkerchief that matched his shirt. He would duck his head and swiftly dab at his brow before returning the hankie, to do it all over again a few minutes later.

Assemblyman Jeffries looked as though he wanted to hide the fact that he, too, was human, and thus susceptible to the heat. But the thought that crossed our minds was imagine having to live in one of these brick-and-concrete monoliths on such an unbearable day. It turns out that is the unfortunate case year-round.

“They are suffering from rats, broken doors, mold, broken elevators, inadequate heat and criminal activity that is far too rampant,” Mr. Jeffries scolded, the crowd uh-huhing along. “These conditions are unsanitary, unsafe and unacceptable.”

On Friday, Mr. Jeffries sent a letter to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan—Mayor Bloomberg's Housing Preservation and Development commissioner until President Obama spirited him back to Washington four years ago. The assemblyman wanted a full accounting of nearly $1 billion in federal funds that the city's housing authority had failed to spend or misspent as public housing residents suffer through a maintenance backlog stretching for years. The Daily News revealed the problems on August 1 and has been hammering on the agency every day since, often with multiple articles and editorials per issue spanning a range of alleged infractions and misdeeds.

Whether the problems are as serious as the paper contends is a matter of debate—some housing watchers have said they are not, and that in fact the News is itself engaging in the sort of obfuscation the tab is accusing the city of. At the same time, these people say, the Housing Authority, which accommodates as many residents as the entire city of Atlanta, remains rife with problems, just not exactly the ones that are currently drawing headlines.

This is part of the reason Mr. Jeffries is calling for his investigation. “This mismanagement shocks the conscience and requires immediate federal intervention,” he said. “There are tens of thousands of hard-working, decent families who live in this community and throughout the city in public housing. Many of these families are subjected to conditions that are inhumane.”

He said that the housing authority was no better than “the boy who cried wolf” because for years the agency had pleaded poverty, only for it now to be revealed that it had hundreds of millions of dollars lying around unspent. (This is not necessarily an accurate assessment, since much of this was capital money, dedicated to large projects, rather than the maintenance accounts, which are effectively broke.)

Mr. Jeffries said he wanted three things from the federal investigation: “What happened, why did it happen and how do we prevent this type of massive financial mismanagement from ever happening again.” HUD had yet to respond to Friday's letter, and representatives could not be reached on Sunday.

(After the press conference, Politicker asked Mr. Jeffries if he had any specific solutions to offer himself, but he demurred. “We have to figure out what went wrong first,” was all he would say. When it was pointed out that a federal issue like this was a smart campaign move for someone running for Congress and trying to look the part, he said that had nothing to do with the decision to take on this cause. “The campaign is largely over, notwithstanding the fact there's a general election, but that's not why we're here,” he said. “We're here because there's an urgent need, and the most obvious way for it to be addressed is through an investigation by the federal oversight agency that provided the resources that are being wasted.”)

Following Mr. Jeffries was Mark V.C. Taylor, pastor of the nearby Church of the Open Door—many in the crowd actually came from the congregation, and following the press conference, they rushed off to services, leaving few behind. Reverend Taylor, who was wearing a yellow Men of God Ministry T-shirt, was the most eloquent of the speakers, but also the most incendiary, giving a sermon on the demerits of the public housing system and the city's development over the past decade.

“Our mayor is on record as being against gun violence; he's one of the loudest critics in the world,” Rev. Taylor intoned. “But what about economic violence? If you hold $950 million, that is the same as holding a gun to the heads of this community. If you hold up $1 billion while you build up skyscrapers for rich people, that is anti-democratic, it's paving the way for the development steamroller.”

He spoke out not only against bad conditions within the apartments but also those surrounding them. In the Whitman Houses, nearby in Fort Greene, there has been a fight for four years to have the community center reopened, and the Farragut Houses are about to lose its day-care center. “It was lumped in with DUMBO,” he said. “Now there's another question: how can you lump Farragut in with DUMBO?”

Mary Andrews, president of the Farragut Tenants Association, marveled at the changes and challenges she had experienced over more than half a century in public housing. “There have been a lot of things that Housing has told us they didn't have but did have,” she said, leaning against a walker for support. “I know Housing and their board are making $200,000-a-year salaries. They can't take some of that and help us repair our apartments? Every time we put in a ticket for a repair, it's not repaired.”

“We're not trying to bash this one or that,” she added. “We just want to know where the money is, and what it's used for. Because we need it.” This drew the loudest applause of the morning. Ms. Andrews then mentioned that this was her first time speaking at a press conference and thanked everyone for listening.

Dominique Bryant grew up in the Ingersoll Houses across from Fort Greene Park; now 27, she is president of the tenants association. She gave a speech peppered with the declaration “Accountabilty,” equal parts exclamation and question: “I walk around the playgrounds and the basketball courts. On one side, there are no nets. On the other, there is a basketball court that does not have the metal piece that creates the court itself. Accountability.

"We were told that everything that needs to be done in terms of the basketball courts and the playgrounds has to be placed on a wish list. And I stand before you and I stand before NYCHA, and I tell you, I wish you had the money. I wish the money can be found, I wish the money can be utilized to replace our playgrounds. Our kids have nowhere to play, so they are playing with guns. Accountability.”

If the community seems especially enraged by these transgressions, it is not that this is a new situation—as indeed, it has unfortunately been this way for a long time. Not that this is just the way it is would ever be an acceptable answer or excuse for the abysmal situation at many Housing Authority properties. The reason the public housing community appears to be so incensed about these latest revelations of mismanagement is not because it really comes as a surprise—it does, but only because the Bloomberg administration has been so successful in so many other areas. Now more than ever, these people feel cast off and dispossessed.

“There is a lot of distrust between tenant and landlord, NYCHA and its tenants,” Rev. Taylor said. “We have a lot of distrust because we live in a neighborhood that is heavily gentrified. We see that the city has helped to build new skyscrapers, we see that the city has helped to build new neighborhoods in the 22 years that I've been here, and since, our community has changed its hue, and we're seeing services that we never saw before. So we have to wonder, where is the priority of the city, particularly to its people of color? Does the city really have a democratic stance in terms of its economic resources, especially if $950 million is being withheld?”