Meet Mildred Aviles, Housing Manager at Rutgers Houses

We’re periodically featuring the female property managers who help NYCHA carry out its mission to better serve residents and strengthen our partnership with them. NYCHA supports and encourages women in leadership positions in all departments, including property management. Currently, there are 260 women working as property managers at the Authority. In this installment, meet one of them – Mildred Aviles. 

Mildred Aviles has been the property manager at Rutgers Houses for almost a year. Though she still may be considered new to some residents, she’s had years of experience managing NYCHA developments, previously serving as property manager of Straus Houses and assistant property manager at Chelsea Houses.

Ms. Aviles has been serving NYCHA residents for 26 years. She got her start at NYCHA in 1995 through the Housing Youth Training Program. As a resident of Riis Houses, she enrolled in the program, which provided both classroom and on-the-job training. “They taught us that there were opportunities out there for us and they told us how to get there from A to Z and what would be your end goal if you made this your career,” Ms. Aviles said. “We had mentors who were NYCHA employees we could go to if we had questions. Where I am as a property manager right now – that was the goal.”

Her first position at NYCHA was as a secretary at Baruch Houses. She recalled how back then they were still using switchboards and creating paper work orders at the front desk. From there she moved through various departments, working for Leased Housing, Technical Services, and more. When she moved to a secretarial position at Rutgers Houses, she decided to take more concrete steps to advance her career. In between tasks, she began reading procedures and asking questions of her supervisors (who were happy to mentor her). She took the civil service test for housing assistant, passed it, and was promoted to housing assistant at Chelsea Houses. Two years later, she took the civil service test for assistant manager, passed it, and was promoted to assistant property manager at the development, a role she held for six years.

Ms. Aviles said that her experience as a 43-year NYCHA resident makes her more empathetic to what residents need. “As a resident, if I have concerns about where I live and they are not addressed, it’s frustrating,” she said. “As a property manager, I don’t want residents to encounter that; I want their needs to be addressed. “

“It’s my responsibility to ensure that NYCHA residents have a safe home, safe environment, safe common areas,” Ms. Aviles said. “Safety is right up there with providing all the services that the tenants require. Each and every resident and each and every employee is my responsibility, no matter how major or how minor. We don’t sit and wait and wonder – we take care of it.”

And when her residents recall how she helped them, it makes her love her job even more. “I recently ran into one of my residents from Chelsea who is Russian, and we provided her services and made sure she received everything she needed, even with the language barrier. She speaks some English and she said she missed me and, ‘Why did you leave me?’ I was so happy.” Ms. Aviles said there are many residents who walk into management offices to commend NYCHA employees, but that’s not often heard.

In addition to ensuring the development is running smoothly, Ms. Aviles believes it’s important to establish good relationships with her employees so that they know they can come to her with questions. She takes time to sit down with every new employee to establish a relationship, discuss their job responsibilities and procedures, and answer any questions they have. Ms. Aviles said she had supervisors who took the time to teach her everything she knows. “As long as I’m able to, I will be here to provide the services residents need and I’ll be here to help my employees, because I want them to move up like I did,” she noted. “The opportunities I was afforded in 1995 pushed me to be where I am today.”