Clay Avenue RA President Maria Forbes: Advocate for Public Housing Residents

March is Women’s History Month, a time to honor and celebrate the contributions women have made and continue to make.  

Inside the resident association office on Clay Avenue, there’s a sign that reads “Educating tenants on rights since 1990.” Indeed, for more than 30 years, Maria Forbes has been advocating for her fellow Clay Avenue residents as president of the resident association. She has steadily worked to address repairs, improve conditions, tackle crime in her community, feed those in need, provide youth programs and job training to residents, and much more. 

Ms. Forbes has been a Bronx resident for most of her life; she moved into Clay Avenue in 1985 with her family. She raised her three sons there, and though she now has 10 grandchildren and two great grandchildren, she shows no signs of slowing down in her service to residents. Her cell phone buzzes constantly with calls from residents who need assistance, NYCHA employees she’s working with, or partners planning events or offering resources at the development. She keeps a large date book planner with her to keep track of the many meetings and events she’s planning or needs to attend. 

She is proud of many accomplishments over the years as RA president, particularly a grant the resident association received in 1995 for $100,000 to create a job training and placement program and incorporating the resident association as a nonprofit organization which opened the doors for applying for more grants. Her expertise and strong community relationships allowed her to work with former New York State Senator Ruth Hassel Thomas, where she oversaw 21 housing developments with $300,000 distributed to resident associations.   

Though she doesn’t like to tout her accomplishments, she is most animated when talking about the work she’s done for children. Through being the director of the drug prevention and intervention program from 1992 to 2007 at the Police Athletic League program that was formerly located at Claremont Consolidated and funded by NYCHA, she said they helped low-income families with no access to summer camp have a safe place for their children to learn and grow. Most recently, she’s been excited to collect books from the Brooklyn Book Bodega to distribute to children at the development and in the community so they can build a love of reading. 

During the pandemic she helped distribute masks and hand sanitizer, helped organize COVID testing at the development, and was awarded funds to help publicize COVID testing and vaccination. She helped distribute 1,000 meals a day and buy groceries for seniors. She stepped in to assist a senior development that was dealing with the loss of their resident association president. With Neighborhood Coordination Officers from the NYPD’s 44th precinct and other organizations, Ms. Forbes hosted “Kids Day Out” during the summer months after children had been inside and doing remote school. “Not only did this get the children back outside, but it also brought the parents outside so that they could get in-person contact and vital information from agencies and organizations they were unable to reach while everyone was staying at home,” she said.  

She is also on the RAD Roundtable for Resident Rights and Protections and helped develop the Resident Handbook for RAD. In 2022, she was named the business agent for the NYCHA Bronx South District Council of Presidents, which serves 60 developments and more than 60,000 residents.   

It’s important for her to be involved because “we need to have a seat at the table so we, the NYCHA residents, can tell NYCHA and [other] organizations what we want. So, we can tell you [for instance] we want an educational center, not a basketball court.” 

In addition to being president of the resident association, Ms. Forbes is very active with multiple other organizations. At the core of her memberships in various local, national, and international organizations is her drive to help others. She developed her values of advocacy from her late mother, who was a tenant and community activist. 

She is a member of the NYCHA branch of the NAACP and has been a member of the local NYC Emergency Management Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) since 2005. In 2022, she graduated from the Citizen’s Police Academy, a six-week training program that provides community members with a background and deeper understanding of NYPD policies and activities. 

In 1995, she was chosen to join the National Congress of Neighborhood Women (NCNW), which supports low-income and working-class women as they help improve their communities. In 2016, she joined the Huairou Commission, a women-led movement of grassroots groups from low-income urban, rural, and indigenous communities in more than 45 countries that work for change. Huairou Commission and NCNW are partners that work with the United Nations. Last year, Ms. Forbes was elected to serve as grassroots at large representative on Huairou’s governing council, helping to lead the organization along with women leaders from around the world. 

In 2016, Ms. Forbes was the only public housing resident association leader in the U.S. to be selected by the NCNW to attend the UN World Urban Forum to represent Huairou/NCNW and public housing residents to ensure that the stories of NYCHA residents are heard on the world stage. She has since attended World Urban Forums in Ecuador, Malaysia, Nairobi, Abu Dhabi, and Poland; she plans to attend the 2024 event in Cairo, Egypt. Ms. Forbes also attended the UN Women’s Commission on the Status of Women annual two-week session held this March on the themes of innovation and technological change and education in the digital age for women and girls. 

“I remember someone at one of the World Urban Forums looked down on public housing. I said, ‘Let me tell you what comes out of public housing. Municipal workers, babysitters, truck drivers, workers for the City.’” 

Ms. Forbes applies everything she learns from meeting with colleagues from other countries to her advocacy as a resident leader.  

“This has been a rich and rewarding experience being TA president,” Ms. Forbes said. “I’d rather have 10 of something than 100 of nothing, so my best reward for being a TA president is if I’m able to help one family. All my residents benefit from my advocating and expediting, but when we fight for rights here, it’s a benefit to caretakers, truck drivers, anyone who is providing services to the development. All resident association presidents who volunteer are caring, sharing love and empathy without a salary, and should be commended.”