Boyd to further ‘tenant’ agenda on Rockville Centre Housing Authority board

Cynthia Boyd, a 15-year resident of Old Mill Court, has been elected by residents of the complex on North Centre Avenue and the senior citizen complex on Merrick Road to a two-year term as a member of the Rockville Centre Housing Authority.

Boyd was officially installed at the regular meeting of the authority on the afternoon of Sept. 19.

Boyd has a long-term record of advocating for the civil rights of residents. She organized a tenant’s association and served as vice president. Over the years she has been a regular at Housing Authority meetings, speaking on behalf of the tenants. After an FBI raid on the Old Mill Court complex in June 2011, which involved more than 100 law enforcement officers, Boyd led tenants in a meeting with Mayor Francis Murray to protest the “invasion” that she said frightened its children and seniors in an “overkill” operation that yielded very little in the way of illegal activity.

Boyd has also been at the forefront of opposition to a Housing Authority policy that calls for the eviction of a resident if a family member or close friend is arrested and charged with criminal activity. “Such evictions violate the human rights of the innocent family members who were not involved in any crime,” she said, “and such residents should not be deprived of their apartments when they are innocent.” She and other tenants recently went to the county courthouse in Hempstead to prevent such evictions and Boyd has called on the mayor to work to halt any proceedings which are still pending.

Boyd and other members of the tenant association have also expressed dissatisfaction with the renovations that were completed in the complex a few years ago. They say that the job, while it looks nice on the outside, is actually inferior on the inside. The developer, they say, took down the old soundproof interior walls and replaced them with thin walls that allow noises and sounds to be easily heard in adjacent apartments.

Boyd also said she will work to provide better parking for residents and visitors and to prevent the community from being fenced in on all sides, something that denies convenient and emergency egress for residents.