Counterclockwise: Kerry-Jane King: NYPA Senior Director of Sustainability; Yonkers City Councilman John Rubbo; Wilson Kimball, President and CEO MHACY; Yonkers City Council President Lakisha Collins-Bellamy; Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano; Lisa Payne Wansley: NYPA, VP of Environmental Justice; Yonkers City Council member Shanae Williams, William Serratore, City of Yonkers Sustainability Director.

YONKERS, NY (October 21, 2022) – Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano and city officials joined the staff of the New York Power Authority’s Tree Power program to plant trees at a Yonkers Housing Authority property as part of an on-going Housing Authority Climate Resiliency program.

Wilson Kimball, President and CEO of the Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers, said the planting dovetails with an ongoing partnership between the Yonkers Housing Authority and Groundwork Hudson Valley to plant trees and create bioswales at housing authority properties to mitigate flooding and the effects of summer heat islands in urban areas.

The Tree Power program is planting a total of 66 trees across the city. It’s all part of an effort to meet goals set in NYPA’s multi-year Sustainability Plan. As they grow, the trees will capture and sequester carbon from the atmosphere, mitigating the effects of climate change in line with New York’s Climate Act. The program also prioritizes tree planting in disadvantaged communities across New York State in accordance with the objectives of NYPA’s Environmental Justice program.

About MHACY

The Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers (MHACY) is the largest provider of affordable housing in the City of Yonkers and the second largest public housing authority in New York State. MHACY has an unparalleled commitment to redeveloping, managing and administering its housing stock to provide low-income families, the elderly and disabled individuals with access to good, sustainable housing that improves the quality of the residents’ lives, fosters their economic success, and allows them to serve as integral members of communities in which they live. For more information visit www.mhacy.org