Art exhibit details the living conditions some NYCHA residents have faced

"Speak Out" is also a tribute to the 10-year anniversary of the Vaez v. NYCHA court case that required NYCHA to fix mold and leak issues.

News 12 Staff

Oct 28, 2023, 2:44 AM

Updated 411 days ago

Share:

A new art exhibit on display in Melrose documents some of the living conditions that some New Yorkers have endured in NYCHA buildings.
The curators of this photography and oral history exhibition decided to call it "Speak Out."
The exhibit is also a tribute to the 10-year anniversary of the Vaez v. NYCHA court case that required NYCHA to fix mold and leak issues. The product that came out of that case was the Ombudsperson Call Center, or OCC.
"Calling OCC kind of gave us, it helped me feel like I had somebody on my side," says NYCHA resident Blanca Ramos.
OCC is the hotline residents can call outside of NYCHA when there are leaks and mold issues in their apartments. According to OCC, they have completed over 17,000 repairs requests, Ramos being one of them.
Ramos says she's been living in her apartment for over three decades and when things started to fall apart, the OCC was there to help.
"It gave me hope. I was like, 'wow,' the fact that OCC was able to get my problem solved."
The exhibit details the stories of other residents that are similar to Ramos.' The state of their apartments affected their health and they were unsure if help would come. But, that could change soon.
"The message to NYCHA is that we're not going away. We're going to keep hounding at this until we get it right," says Father Francis Skelly, associate pastor of the Immaculate Conception Church.
The exhibit will be opened to the public until Nov. 5. After that, it will be available for anyone to view online.
For more information on the exhibit as well as how to get in contact with the OCC, follow this link.