March 2016

We are pleased to announce that Walthene Primus has agreed to participate in NYCHA’s “I am NextGen” campaign and is now featured in display posters throughout NYCHA and public media for her commitment to public service. You grew up at a NYCHA development, didn’t you? Yes, my family moved into Albany Houses, in Brooklyn, when… Continue Reading Homegrown Hero: Walthene Primus, Fighting for Gender Equality

NYCHA was ready when the winter of 2016 came calling on Sunday, February 14. Just a few weeks after Winter Storm Jonas buried New York with a record two-foot snowfall, the frigid Valentine’s Day forecast sent NYCHA’s rapid response teams and other staff back into action. Due to years of federal funding reductions and state… Continue Reading All-Hands Response Keeps Boilers Operating in Record Cold

Chair Shola Olatoye addressed staff in a video presentation on March 21 to announce NYCHA’s historic FlexOps initiative. You can see the video presentation at http://on.nyc.gov/FlexOps. Following are her remarks. The problems NYCHA faces have been building up for decades. For years, we’ve been caught between decaying buildings, money shortfalls and ineffective management. These past… Continue Reading Chair Olatoye Announces Historic Changes to Operations with New Expanded Service Hours

NYCHA’s NAACP branch held its Black History Month celebration in the 90 Church Street Ceremonial Room on February 25. Marked by music, dance and high spirit, the reception celebrated the contributions of African Americans to every aspect of national life. The gathering also recognized the many ways that the NAACP branch, established in 1969, is… Continue Reading NYCHA Celebrates Black History Month

Did you know that NYCHA’s dynamic branch of the NAACP has its own radio show? “Let Your Voice Be Heard,” broadcast on 93.1 FM, was started in 2012 as a forum for NYCHA employees and community members “to discuss some of the positive things going on in our communities and also to help find solutions… Continue Reading Let Your Voice Be Heard

Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye announced the completion of a $4.8 million lighting installation project at Polo Grounds Towers in Harlem on March 10. Beginning August 2015, NYCHA replaced the development’s outdated exterior lighting system—installed when the buildings were originally built in the late 1960s—with state-of-the-art, energy-efficient lighting located at entrances, walkways and parking areas.… Continue Reading Lighting Installed at Polo Grounds

NYCHA has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for potential developers to upgrade approximately 1,400 public housing units at Ocean Bay (Bayside) Apartments in Far Rockaways through the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. The release of the RFP is a major milestone for a process that started back in 2013, when NYCHA first met with… Continue Reading NYCHA Releases RFP for Ocean Bay

I came up through NYCHA’s Minority Youth Training Program that I joined when I was a 19-year-old resident of Throggs Neck Houses. After six months of training I was hired as a heating plant technician in 1985. I was the only female HPT at Soundview Houses, there was no ladies’ locker room, and I had… Continue Reading NYCHA’s Women are Hammering, Welding, Inspecting and More