After researching multiple elements associated with the Infrastructure and Environment generally associated with NYCHA housing, many issues came up more than once: the lack of security, maintenance, lack of community, and lack of proper lighting. Because these issues presented themselves at most of the housing developments our class visited, we came up with our own solutions that we feel would successfully address these problems and make New York City public housing a safer place to live.
More NYCHA employees should be residents of public housing
As of now, only 25% of employees live in NYCHA developments. If more employees lived in the areas in which they worked, they would be more invested in improving the condition of the buildings. If they merely work there, employees can feel aloof and indifferent as to the situation of the residents. But if they become the residents themselves, they will realize the importance of making sure the buildings are well maintained in order for everyone to have a better living experience.
Improve internal maintenance and ensure there is a quicker response to residents’ complaints
In NYCHA developments, there can often be the problem of “the broken window effect.” This is when a small problem, such as a broken window, is allowed to go unaddressed. This then results in a ripple effect in which problems escalate without being solved and everything is in worse condition with no hope of recovery. This is what has happened in various developments that have been demolished or shut down due to dilapidation and vandalism, among other issues. In order to avoid this, problems should be addressed right away. When residents bring up a complaint, action should be taken immediately so that it is resolved and does not become a bigger issue.
Increased lighting and security
NYCHA should install more lamps around the vicinity of each of the developments. There should also be more cameras and security personnel. With a sense of increased visibility, people will be less inclined to do drugs, commit vandalism, or participate in other illegal activities.
Incentive programs to encourage maintenance
This is one way of getting residents more involved to make sure the development remains in good condition. One way of making sure residents comply with laws is to instill punitive measures. For example, if people disregard signs such as “No Littering” or “Curb your Dog,” then they will have to face a monetary penalty. On the other hand, there can also be rewards for those who take an active role in the maintenance of the development. There can be a volunteer community cleanup committee and those who are involved in it could receive a discount on their monthly rent.
Community meetings
Hearing the voice of the residents is another way to get them more involved in making sure the developments are well-kept. These meetings can be held every two week and residents and employees alike should be able to bring up their grievances. Since residents are the ones who actually live there, they will be able to provide more insight as to what issues need to be addressed while employees may also notice overarching problems in the developments. However, these meetings are not so people can complain and then just leave; everyone must agree on the proper course of action so that these issues will be resolved effectively and immediately.
NYCHA Solutions
Many of the proposed solutions that we mentioned above have actually been addressed in NYCHA’s new program to make public housing a safer place in New York City. Proposed in 2015 by Mayor de Blasio, NextGeneration NYCHA is a long-term program with the goal of 
being better equipped to service its residences. Due to finances that are continually cut, most of NYCHA’s buildings, which were constructed between the 1950s and 1960s, have not had proper maintenance. This has left many buildings in terrible condition, with residences constantly displeased about how slow their repair requests are addressed. In order to successfully address all maintenance issues and update these outdated buildings, NYCHA predicts that it needs a whopping seventeen billion dollars. Additionally, many NYCHA residences impacted by Hurricane Sandy in October of 2012, have still not had all repairs completed on their homes, four and a half years after it happened.
This delayed repair work has left their homes in even worse shape. Because of many of these shortcomings, NextGeneration NYCHA’s goal is to strategically manage finances so these buildings can be properly maintained in order to better develop the housing authority over the next ten years.
According to their website, NYCHA believes that four different goals, with their corresponding strategies, will allow them to achieve their overall intentions of providing a better home environment for its residents. Within each of these four goals will be all intended solutions, with an implementation strategy. Mentioned below are all proposed solutions that pertain to the improvement of the infrastructure and environment of NYCHA complexes:
1. Achieve short-term financial stability and diversify funding for the long term.
Firstly, NYCHA is aiming to increase its financial stability by leasing NYCHA land, unoccupied by resident houses, to businesses which can help benefit NYCHA areas. With more than two million square feet of space available for this, NYCHA hopes to move in grocery stores, day care centers, and other convenience stores in order to generate some revenue in addition to ensuring residents have easy access to stores and services close to where they live. Although small, this hopes to generate revenue of an estimated one million dollars a year for NYCHA. Not only will this create some revenue, but it will also create more bustle within these areas, likely leading to increased security in surrounding NYCHA areas.
2.Operate as an efficient and effective landlord.
Another goal put forth within the NextGeneration NYCHA proposal was the increased use of digital services in order to become better responsive to repair requests from its residents. These anticipated services would allow residents to file repair requests, track the status of their repair, and view other related work at their NYCHA residences. This includes, but is not limited to, power outages, inspection dates, and updates being implemented at their buildings. This goal would help limit the number of calls to the NYCHA hotline, the Customer Contact Center (CCC), and allow repairs to be addressed more quickly since they were reported through electronic record.
Under this category, one of NYCHA’s main goals was to improve transparency throughout all aspects related to its housing complexes. This included statistics online based on each housing complex, showing the average number of days until successful repair for certain projects, in addition to the change in average time over the next 3-6 months. This was to ensure that residents would have piece of mind when submitting repair requests, instead of the usual, where residents wait with no idea when their request will be fulfilled.
Another important element of NextGeneration NYCHA’s goal #2 was the proposed creation of what is known as the “Optimal Property Management Operating Model,” or OPMOM. Within NYCHA’s structure pre-NextGeneration NYCHA, funds are distributed based on population of buildings, and must go through a central office. This central office would also decide on how each of the NYCHA residences must be run, with the number and position of staff at each house at their discretion. Although this method attempted to make the housing authority more effective at addressing its residents’ needs by volume, it only sounded good in theory; unfortunately, this method created a “one-size-fits-all” approach and didn’t allow each residence to effectively address the unique needs of its residences. Since all residence houses are different, the introduction of OPMOM at NYCHA houses by NextGeneration NYCHA hopes to better provide customer service to its residents at each housing complex. Simply put, OPMOM aims to do this by allowing property managers to use their judgment to better run their houses. By eliminating the central office from the mix and putting property managers in charge, NYCHA hopes that this will allow them to make customized decisions that will better address their unique NYCHA developments.
Also, NYCHA stated that it would invest $100 million into security improvements at New York City projects. This includes, but is not limited to, better street lighting, fixed and more secure entrances into buildings, and more security cameras present at all developments. In addition to more secure entrances at buildings, NYCHA proposed the idea of “layered access.” If unwelcome individuals enter the housing complex, there will be more than one security layer, further hindering them from full access to the inside of these buildings.
Outside of residence halls, NYCHA also hopes to improve its residence halls by making lasting efforts at protecting the environment. At the proposal of NextGeneration NYCHA, NYCHA hoped to provide recycling bins outside each residence in order to decrease its carbon footprint at each of its 328 housing facilities.
3.(Re)build, expand, and preserve public and affordable housing stock.
In addition to generating revenue by leasing NYCHA land (where no homes are present) to smaller stores, NYCHA has also made a goal of using its land to create “Tower in the Park” spaces. These plots of land consist of land deemed sufficient by NYCHA to use for creation of new, smaller buildings for residence. Although this goal was recognized in 2004, NYCHA aims in its NextGeneration proposal to dedicate more funds to this effort, as some proposed housing locations have been closed down due to lack of funding.
4.Engage residents and connect them to best-in-class social services.
Engagement with residents is a key aspect of making sure that a friendly, safe, and collaborative environment is present at all NYCHA developments. Although much of the information contained within this goal does not pertain to the improvement of the infrastructure and environment of these houses, one notable objective within goal #4 was to push implementation of residence hall councils, comprised of staff members, residents, and resident leaders to create a community that is better connected with each other.
NYCHA Successes so far
Since its proposal in 2015, NextGeneration NYCHA has had multiple successes for its residents. Although much more has to be done, this work shows that NYCHA has made a significant to improve its quality of life for its residents, while also better managing its finances in order to maintain this promise to its residents long term.
Most notably, NYCHA has improved its transparency for all residents seeking to look at the status of maintenance requests they have filed. the MyNYCHA app, which launched in 2015, has had more than 23,600 downloads and has led to more efficient maintenance operation at NYCHA complexes. Coupled with this goal, NYCHA has made all online reports accessible to online residents. On the NYCHA website, access to all resident work orders, and other relevant infrastructure-related statistics are fully accessible for all 328 housing developments not only to NYCHA residents, but to anyone who searches. Clearly, this has been a huge step in NYCHA’s goal at providing transparency for its residents so they can feel that their needs are being adequately served.
For example, consider the Nathan Straus houses that we mentioned before on a previous tab. Upon searching up the Straus houses, we found a plethora of information which gave us an idea of how well NYCHA was responding to the repair requests of its residents:
Since its formulation as a simple idea in March of 2014, the decentralized management idea characterized by OPMOM has been a success at the
multiple locations which it has been implemented since January 5th, 2015. Initially tested at the 17 housing locations pictured in the map below, the OPMOM structure has managed 22,386 units since its inception. OPMOM has given property managers, staff members, and other authorities at each NYCHA residence more responsibility over their housing complexes. OPMOM property managers meet with NYCHA in order to address what each housing complex needs so it can be factored individually into their housing budget. Additionally, NYCHA facilities under the OPMOM structure are currently aiming for a goal of an average repair time of 7 days for any work request, as they feel that the average repair time metric better represents the improvement of maintenance at NYCHA houses, as opposed to the previous measure focused on: the number of maintenance requests outstanding. So far, project managers have reported that collaboration between staff managers and interactions with residents under this structure has been made easier, shown by:
Within the first few months of its implementation, NYCHA has provided project managers with invaluable ways to keep track of their progress, from scorecards, monthly meetings and financial reports, and meetings with leaders of resident groups in order to consider and incorporate their opinions into NYCHA residence matters. Overall, OPMOM seems to have success within the communities in which it is implemented with many more successes hopefully to come.
