NYCHA Now
Message from the CEO
July 2026NYCHA Leadership

Quarterly Update from the CEO (Summer 2026)

Michael Corwin

Dear Colleagues, 

Summer is finally here, and I know we all agree that it’s the best season to recharge, celebrate, and reflect on our work and achievements so far this year. Here are some of the exciting advances we’ve made recently to strengthen our organization and improve residents’ quality of life. 

Leadership Updates 

Transformation is an ongoing process, and it involves ensuring that talented and dedicated public servants are at the helm. As I announced recently, here are some of the recent leadership appointments at NYCHA:  

  • Farhan Abdullah was appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer. 
  • Dylan Baker-Rice was appointed Chief Asset and Capital Management Officer. 
  • Heather Beck was appointed Interim Executive Vice President and Chief Real Estate Officer. 
  • Jose Cajas was appointed Senior Director of General Services and Supply Chain Optimization. 
  • Carly Hoffmann was appointed Vice President for Transactions. 
  • Nick Mendoza was appointed Chief Procurement Officer. 
  • Michael Parkinson was appointed Vice President of Portfolio Planning and Project Development. 
  • Emma Vitaliano was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff. 

Please join me in congratulating everyone on their new roles! 

NYCHA In Your Neighborhood 

In May, we launched the first in our series of NYCHA In Your Neighborhood forums with NYCHA residents, at the Classic Community Center at Melrose in the Bronx. NYCHA In Your Neighborhood is an innovative new way for residents to connect with NYCHA leadership as well as representatives from sister City agencies, and it builds on our strong commitment to resident engagement. In June, we held NYCHA In Your Neighborhood sessions in Brooklyn (at the Van Dyke Community Center) and Manhattan (at the Ethel Battle Velez Community Center), and we plan to host additional sessions in Queens and Staten Island this fall as well as a second round of forums in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan. Each session provides hundreds of residents the opportunity to ask questions and provide input to senior leaders, including me and Chief Operating Officer Eva Trimble, as well as the opportunity to visit resource tables staffed by NYCHA departments and City agency partners, such as the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, Department of Social Services, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Department of Youth and Community Development, and Department for the Aging. 

Transforming Our Buildings 

We are making considerable progress in our work to bring our buildings the investments they desperately need, through our regular capital program as well as creative strategies such as PACT and the NYC Public Housing Preservation Trust. 

In June, the Eastchester Gardens community marked the first anniversary since the historic Bronx development officially entered the PACT program, holding a “Spring Thing” event at one of the development’s newly renovated playgrounds that highlighted the $391 million in recent and anticipated PACT improvements. In May, NYCHA closed on the financing for a $349 million PACT project that will bring comprehensive renovations to over 1,200 residents living in four buildings at Moore Houses and East 152nd Street-Courtlandt Avenue in the Melrose section of the Bronx; selected in coordination with resident leadership, the PACT partner team has worked closely with residents and NYCHA to design every aspect of the development’s renovation. Also in May, NYCHA’s Real Estate Development Department and partners presented the “Rethink Red Hook West Community Visioning Report,” culminating a yearlong community planning process that centered Red Hook West resident voices in developing a shared vision for the future of the Brooklyn development through the PACT program; the report will guide future investments under the PACT program, while meeting the community’s everyday needs and ensuring safe, affordable housing for generations to come.  

In June, we celebrated the selection of a design-build team that will renovate apartments and shared spaces at Unity Towers in Coney Island, as part of the development’s conversion to the NYC Public Housing Preservation Trust. Unity Towers, which comprises Coney Island Houses and Coney Island I (Site 1B), was the third development that voted to join the Trust, following resident votes at Nostrand Houses and Bronx River Addition. A Unity Towers resident representative, as well as a property management representative, were involved in the selection of the design-build team, and residents will also inform the design process, including the selection of finishes, colors, and other design elements. The Trust is a fully public entity that will unlock billions of dollars in federal funding for much-needed, comprehensive renovations to improve residents’ quality of life; like the PACT program, it maintains residents’ rights, including permanently affordable rent.  

Transforming the Ways We Work  

With this year’s heat season now behind us, we can reflect on the progress we made in service to residents. Over the past five years, we’ve achieved a 7 percent decrease in heat or hot water outages and a 7.8-hour average restoration time – hours ahead of the HUD requirement of 12 hours (a requirement we exceeded for the seventh year in a row). And in the 2025-2026 heat season, we made over $90.6 million in capital heating infrastructure investments to improve heat service delivery for 10,433 residents at five developments.  

On Earth Day, in April, we proudly released NYCHA’s 2026 Sustainability Agenda. Coming 10 years after NYCHA’s inaugural Sustainability Agenda, the new document provides a comprehensive update on our sustainability efforts and progress, and it outlines goals for the next five years. That includes the next steps for expansion of the window heat pump program, transitioning 20,000 NYCHA apartments from fossil fuel heating systems to clean, efficient heating and cooling. The first homes to receive window or other packaged heat pumps through this expansion include apartments at Woodside Houses, Saint Nicholas Houses, Claremont Consolidated, and Beach 41st Street Houses – as well as 1,610 apartments at Bay View Houses and 224 apartments at Campos Plaza II, which have converted to the PACT program. The Agenda also details plans for the installation of 10,000 electric induction stoves in apartments at developments that would have been prioritized for gas riser replacement, and 150 public electric vehicle charging stations in NYCHA parking lots, among other objectives to be achieved by 2031.    

Connect with the CEO  

As part of our “Coffee with the CEO” series, I meet informally with small groups of employees from across the Authority to discuss how we can work together more effectively to achieve our goals as an organization. If you’d like to participate, please complete the information here. Participants are chosen randomly, and you’ll be contacted if you are selected.        

Do you have a general question about NYCHA? You can send your questions to AsktheCEO@nycha.nyc.gov and check NYCHANow and Connect to see if they were selected to be answered as part of our “Ask the CEO” column. Please be advised that featured questions will be published with the names of the employees who submitted them.    

I look forward to our continuing transformation, aided by your indispensable efforts! 

Sincerely, 

Lisa Bova-Hiatt, Chief Executive Officer