Photos: Wikimedia Commons
NEW YORK – Today, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Chief Executive Officer Lisa Bova-Hiatt announced the next five “NYCHA in Your Neighborhood” events, bringing senior City and NYCHA leaders directly into public housing communities across all five boroughs from September through December.
The first three forums, held in May and June, brought 446 New Yorkers together with City and NYCHA leadership and resulted in 151 issues that received follow-up.
“NYCHA residents deserve a government that treats their concerns with urgency and respect. They deserve to be heard directly by the people responsible for delivering the services they rely on. We are putting NYCHA residents at the center of our policymaking, and these events give New Yorkers a direct line to City leaders, the opportunity to share their experiences and get the support they need to make their homes better,” said Mayor Mamdani. “We are making a historic $5.6 billion capital investment in NYCHA, and we’re bringing that same sense of urgency to every neighborhood we serve.”
“’NYCHA in Your Neighborhood’ has proven that when we meet residents where they are for direct, face-to-face engagement, we can make a meaningful difference,” said NYCHA Chief Executive Officer Lisa Bova-Hiatt. “Our inaugural events welcomed a combined total of over 400 attendees and resulted in the subsequent follow-up on more than 150 issues — demonstrating the value of connecting residents directly with NYCHA leadership and City services. We are excited to bring this level of direct interaction to all five boroughs for our next round of events, and grateful to Mayor Mamdani and our City partners for their continued collaboration and support as we work together to ensure NYCHA resident voices are heard and their concerns are addressed.”
At “NYCHA in Your Neighborhood” events, residents can participate in small-group discussions with senior City and NYCHA leaders, share feedback, ask questions and receive assistance. Residents can raise issues affecting their developments, buildings and apartments, including repairs, community programming, pests and waste, elevators, mold, lead and public safety.
The next round of NYCHA in Your Neighborhood events will be held on:
- Wednesday, September 16 – Queens
- Wednesday, September 30 – Staten Island
- Wednesday, October 14 – the Bronx
- Wednesday, November 18 – Brooklyn
- Wednesday, December 2 – Manhattan
Each forum will run from 6:30 to 8:30 PM, and will cover all NYCHA developments in the borough rather than a single property. NYCHA residents can learn more and register for upcoming events HERE.
The forums will include small-group discussions with NYCHA and City Hall leadership, as well as resource tables where residents can speak one-on-one with NYCHA staff about apartment repairs, tenancy concerns, environmental issues and other needs. Residents can also connect with staff from the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants and other City agencies including the Department of Social Services (DSS), Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), Department for the Aging (DFTA) and NYC Parks.
“NYCHA in Your Neighborhood” builds on the Authority’s ongoing engagement with public housing residents, including resident leadership and tenant association meetings, board meetings, resident roundtables and surveys. Residents at each development also have a direct line to NYCHA through their Property Management Office and dedicated on-site staff, as well as specialty teams that respond around the clock to emergency heating, elevator and skilled-trades repair needs.
NYCHA residents who need assistance can call the Customer Contact Center at 718-707-7771 or submit work tickets through the MyNYCHA application
“‘NYCHA in Your Neighborhood’ creates a unique avenue for dialogue between residents and senior leaders across the Authority,” said NYCHA Chief Operating Officer Eva Trimble. “The first three events showed that residents are eager to connect directly to executive and specialty staff and that NYCHA’s leadership always has more to learn about the resident experience. It has been a truly extraordinary opportunity to meet with so many residents face-to-face, and we look forward to continuing these informative discussions this fall.”
“We commend NYCHA and the Administration for organizing these outreach events,” said Fr. Frank Skelly, a leader with Metro IAF. “In our decades of organizing with NYCHA tenants in our congregations and their neighborhoods, far too often, we have heard people tell us how difficult it often is to interact with the Housing Authority and to get clear, reliable information. We know there are many people inside NYCHA working to improve this, and we’ve seen progress, though there’s still a long way to go. This kind of outreach event is one piece of helping tenants connect with the parts of the Housing Authority they need to get their issues resolved.”
“Too often, NYCHA residents are left to navigate serious housing issues with little assistance or entirely on their own,” said Lucy Newman, Supervising Attorney in the Public Housing Unit at The Legal Aid Society. “NYCHA in Your Neighborhood is a great way to help address that problem by bringing residents, agency leadership, and critical services together in one place. The Legal Aid Society is proud to participate, and we look forward to speaking directly with residents and helping ensure they have the tools and resources needed to assert their rights and maintain safe, stable homes.”
“For Queensbridge residents, direct access to NYCHA’s senior leadership is both meaningful and long overdue. Bringing NYCHA’s C-suite into the community gives residents an opportunity to speak directly to the decision-makers about the conditions affecting their homes and families and, just as importantly, to be heard. As someone who was raised in Queensbridge and has spent decades serving this community, I know residents are not merely looking for another forum; they are looking for responsiveness, accountability, and results. ‘NYCHA in Your Neighborhood’ can help strengthen trust by bringing leadership closer to the people they serve and turning residents’ lived experiences into meaningful action,” said Bishop Mitchell G. Taylor, Co-Founder and CEO, Urban Upbound.
