City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said Hillary Clinton’s visit to an East Harlem NYCHA building would help bring some needed national attention to the plight of thousands of public housing tenants.
Mark-Viverito said she was pleased that the presidential candidate, whom the speaker has endorsed, accepted her invitation to meet the seniors at the Corsi Houses Friday and hear them out.
“It was always an interest of mine for her to have a personal, intimate experience with my constituents,” she said.
Although the housing project upgraded its laundry room and security and created a green roof, it and other city public housing facilities are in desperate need of federal funding for quality of life improvements, according to the speaker. Clinton said she would look into getting the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help out financially, Mark Viverito said.
The visit wasn’t all business, as the former secretary of state took some time to have fun with seniors in the rec room. Mark-Viverito said she was happy when Clinton decided to sit down, play a game of dominoes with tenant Pedro Sanabria, and win.
“She was going to walk across the table and saw the empty chair and I told her, ‘Oh you can sit,’” the council speaker said.
