JACKSON SQ.—About 20 people gathered today at the Bromley-Heath housing development to protest what they called the lack of response to recent violence there. Protesters said there have been nine shootings at Bromley Heath in recent weeks.
“Every day we have a shooting,” said Mildred Hailey, former executive director and founder of Bromley-Heath Tenant Management Corporation (TMC), which ran the housing development for 40 years before the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) took over in the spring. “The media is quiet. The BHA is quiet. The [Boston Police Department] is quiet. We cannot afford to be quiet anymore. We can’t wait for a solution to fall on our laps.”
As the Gazette previously reported, five men were shot in Bromley-Heath between May 26 and June 26 in various incidents.
Hailey said the community is willing to work side-by-side with the BHA and the police to find a solution.
“We will mobilize. We will organize. We will educate. The community will negotiate with anybody that wants to bring security to our neighborhood,” she said.
Hailey also said they had asked Bromley’s BHA manager, Angel Lopez, to come outside and speak, but they were told he was an emergency meeting.
The BHA did not have an immediate response.
Jacque Furtado, the former program director for TMC, said in an interview with the Gazette during the protest that Bromley-Heath residents don’t feel comfortable speaking with the BHA and they would rather speak with former TMC employees.
“I work every day here without a paycheck,” said Furtado. “This is family.”