NYCHA Now

NYCHANow chronicles the hard work of the men and women who make the New York City Housing Authority run, reporting the latest news and happenings.

NYCHA Now
Mailroom staff
COVID-19 June 2020 

Celebrating NYCHA Heroes: Administration Staff

Michael Corwin

Customer Contact Center

  • Gina Mitchell: Does an excellent job training our new hires. Recently we needed to train the staff from the Walk-in Centers located in Brooklyn and the Bronx. When called upon, Ms. Mitchell answered the call without hesitation. She is now commuting from New Jersey to Brooklyn to train the staff on how to create a Maintenance Service Request and will also be going to the Bronx to do the same. This is beyond the call of duty.  
  • Michael Ashby: Does an excellent job training our new hires. He has been reporting to work diligently and has been instrumental in training our Leased Housing Department staff and getting them on the phone to handle Maintenance Service Request at a much-needed time.  
  • Dominic Wyche: Has been instrumental in helping supervisory staff in an all-around effort. He helped man the NYCHA information line and helped with various reports needed on a day-to-day basis.
  • Nafeesa Abdur-Rahman: Has been helping to keep the office running smoothly amid this crisis. She has been enforcing safe practices in addition to her other supervisory functions.
  • Shiv Choythani/Raphael Vasquez: Our supervisory night warriors. Diligent, efficient, reliable, and flexible, they have been continuing our customer service efforts in the evening, dealing with residents’ emergency issues while ensuring safe practices among staff and addressing their concerns. They have kept the wheels turning with or without full staffing. A commendable effort on their part.
  • Carlos Cordova/Enrique Parajon: Have been overseeing the NYCHA Call Center, handling a multiplicity of tasks (putting in extra hours to do so). They created an environment of calm and order, as part of the effort to provide much-needed customer service to both our internal and external customers.

General Services Department (GSD)

  • Veronica Richardson: Has been doing a bit of everything for GSD during this emergency situation. She has truly become GSD’s “Swiss army knife,” one person who does it all:
    • Moving NYCHA correspondence back and forth among the three main Central Office locations (250 Broadway, 90 Church Street, and Long Island City);
    • Handling special pick-ups, such as going to FedEx locations in both Brooklyn and Manhattan;
    • Staffing the 90 Church Street and the LIC mailrooms to sort and distribute mail to various NYCHA departments; and
    • Handling numerous mail and print tasks across multiple locations.
  • Francis James: Has shown up each day at Fleet Services to operate the NYCHA flatbed tow trucks. He has made himself available every day and has answered the call again and again. 
    • He picks up horticultural equipment from the developments, connects them to the flatbeds, and tows them to various vendors for servicing; he then returns the repaired equipment to the developments.
    • He attends to out-of-service vehicles across the five boroughs, towing them to service shops for repairs.

Human Resources

  • Steven Crawford, Secretary: Has provided steady administrative support to Human Resources throughout the COVID-19 crisis as the department’s on-site staff member, helping the rest of the members of the HR team perform work remotely. Steven has been the go-to ready resource to provide needed information, distribute computers, restart workstations, and many other tasks that make telework possible. During these trying times, Steven has remained his good natured, mild-mannered self, always providing service with a smile. His work is very much appreciated. 
  • Harvey Chaitoff, Assistant Director of HR for Placement: Has tirelessly put in round-the-clock hours while working remotely to plan and enable HR to continue to fill NYCHA’s most critical positions as quickly as possible, including the current initiative to onboard several hundred emergency per diem workers. His efforts to build teams, communicate, and motivate, even during the most challenging of times, have been his strengths, and his experience, good judgment, sensitivity, attention to detail, dedication, and effectiveness in getting the job done, have proven him to be a most valuable asset throughout the COVID-19 crisis, and undoubtedly for the transition and eventual return to normal operations. 

Department of Real Estate Services

  • Kerry Frazier, Electrician: Responded to two separate incidents related to the LIC data center after normal business hours:
    • One was related to an electrical issue, with him spending several hours on site, coordinating with various entities (both internal and external), including the landlord and the landlord’s construction team. 
      • Mr. Frazier’s knowledge and familiarity of the data center infrastructure allowed him to identify the point of failure (faulty electrical transformer) and work with the necessary parties to correct services, all while communicating and updating multiple NYCHA departments on the situation, including IT (which was impacted).
    • The second was HVAC related. Equipment failed, sending out a High Temperature alarm to our IT department, which in turn notified the Department of Real Estate Services. Mr. Frazier and Eddie Serrano were both contacted and responded to the site, working together to assess and identify the cause of the problem. Once again, their familiarity of systems allowed them to work with our mechanical vendor as well as the landlord’s mechanical contractor to quickly identify the cause and restore cooling, preventing IT systems from failing.