Former City Manager Chuck Strome’s dismissal of four long-serving commissioners of the New Rochelle Municipal Housing Authority (NRMHA) is meeting with stiff resistance by the commissioners themselves, as well as opposition from community members.

The reasons for, and timing of, Strome’s decision are being challenged by the dismissed commissioners and community members as numerous residents have expressed their concerns to the City Council in the Citizens To Be Heard segment of the January Council meeting and more are expected to speak out at the Council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 14. Strome removed the commissioners just two days before his retirement.

The commissioners have rejected and repudiated the assertions contained in the former city manager’s December 29 dismissal letter and the December 21 letter from Luigi D’Ancona, Director Office of Public Housing, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), on which Strome’s decision rested.

The NRMHA board had scheduled a vote to adopt a plan for the redevelopment of Bracey Houses, New Rochelle’s last true public housing project, at their January meeting. Commissioners focused on including more low income and affordable housing, enhanced community services, and opportunities for resident ownership in the plan. With the removal of the four commissioners, the future of Bracey, which is home to 100 families, remains uncertain. 

This same board demonstrated their steadfast support for the safety and well being of residents when they opposed the City’s 2021 rezoning of a property adjoining Bracey to allow for a Starbucks drive-thru. Up until the City Council’s unanimous vote to rezone the property, drive-thrus were not allowed in residential districts.

The former commissioners worked consistently to improve the lives and living conditions of NRMHA residents, successfully completing all but two of the milestones set forth in HUD’s Recovery Agreement dating back to December 8, 2014, and the Inter-Governmental Cooperation Agreement (IGCA) with New Rochelle, dated September 4, 2018. 

On March 24, 2021, under the leadership of the ousted commissioners, the NRMHA achieved Standard Public Housing Authority Performer status with HUD, shedding the Troubled Public Housing Authority status that had persisted for more than 15 years under prior Boards of Commissioners.  

The four commissioners seek to have the city publicly clear them of any perceived wrongdoing, that they be invited to rejoin the NRMHA Board of Commissioners, and that the city support the goals for the redevelopment of Bracey Houses that they were going to adopt at their January meeting.