Lucy Lao

Being the first in her family to go to college, Lucy is looking forward to her senior year at CUNY SPS. She was raised by her grandmother in the Jacob Riis Houses of NYCHA and lived there for twenty-two years. Over the past decade, she has been a baker, book editor and ad agency copywriter. Currently, Lucy is the leasing director of a Mitchell-Lama regulated housing development located in the Two Bridges neighborhood of Manhattan. She is an advocate for affordable housing, tenants’ rights, and rent regulation. She volunteers weekly at the Hamilton-Madison House Senior Center, which provides health, nutritional and social services to more than 5,000 seniors.