The Executive Committee of local 913 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) recently endorsed former HUD Community Builder & Economic Development Specialist Chuck Lesnick for his old position of Yonkers City Council President.
Larry Hirsch, Acting President of local 913 said “I was proud to work with Lesnick at HUD before and after 911 when we sprang into action to help rebuild the city and the region.” Sam Miller who recently retired from HUD added “Chuck worked hard to make sure that Yonkers groups knew of every HUD program so that they could maximize their chances of getting federal Funding”.
When he was Director of Economic Development of Yonkers in the 1990s Chuck brought $18 million HUD lending authority to Yonkers through the Section 108 program. After the misguided Yonkers City Councils of the 1980s declined $3.5 million in year 15 CDBG funding Chuck worked with Congresswoman Nita Lowey and US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan to bring in $3.5 million of federal funding to restore the then dilapidated City Pier.
Lesnick has joined Hirsch and Miller and dozens of housing advocates and tenant groups and NYS Legislators to demand that Elon Musk and DOGE keep their hands off of HUD or risk exasperating the homeless crisis. While the Federal investment in HUD is a very small percentage of its overall budget the cost of reducing the investment will be great.
According to Lesnick “the last time the Republican President cut HUD as severely as is being proposed is when Ronald Reagan causes the Homeless Crisis of the 1980s.”
