Finalist

Rasmia Kirmani-Frye

Building trust to transform public housing in New York City by centering residents and creating, sometimes, unlikely partnerships

Black and white photograph of Rasmia Kirmani-Frye
Year
2020
Sector
Placemaking & Neighborhoods
Borough
Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island
Black and white photograph of Rasmia Kirmani-Frye

One in 15 New Yorkers lives in public housing — many of them the public servants who keep New York City safe and vibrant. But too often this huge and critical system is overlooked or given up as an intractable problem. Rasmia wants to reinvent our public housing system by building networks from generative, community-centered relationships to embrace “truth and reconciliation,” and develop real action plans to change the system.