Meet Teri Dawson, Neighborhood Administrator
Teri Dawson has been a Neighborhood Administrator for Brooklyn Property Management since January 2022. Though the role is new for her, she’s been part of many memorable moments in NYCHA’s history as a 36-year NYCHA employee and a former resident of 26 years.
“I came to NYCHA in 1984 as a baby, straight out of college working as a provisional,” Ms. Dawson said. “I worked at Queensbridge when it was one development, and in 1986 I was called off the civil service list as a housing assistant.”
After some time working in Central Office, she moved back into the field, eventually landing back at Queensbridge as the assistant property manager. Ms. Dawson recalls working at the development when it transitioned to Queensbridge North and Queensbridge South. “We stayed at work until 3 a.m. to make sure each site had all the correct data.”
She’s part of another piece of Queensbridge history: a two-second cameo (at 1:29) in the music video for “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)” by rapper Nas, one of Queensbridge’s most famous former residents.
After Queensbridge, Ms. Dawson took on her first property manager role at Fulton Houses, which led to a long stretch of being property manager at many developments. She believes she holds the record for longest time in the property manager position. “I’ve been known to be the cleanup manager for years, even when I was assistant manager,” she said. She was property manager at Fulton, Jefferson, East River, Polo Grounds, Manhattanville, Drew, Wise, and Taylor-Wythe Houses, with Taylor-Wythe being the last development where she would serve in that role before being named a Neighborhood Administrator.
Due to staffing shortages during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Dawson was also asked to oversee Fred Samuels, Strauss, and Amsterdam while still managing Taylor-Wythe.
Ms. Dawson is one of 30 Neighborhood Administrators who oversee “Neighborhoods” in four geographic boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens/Staten Island. She manages six sites in Brooklyn – Brevoort, Marcus Garvey, Kingsborough, Ocean Hill, Park Rock, and Reid Houses – to ensure each development is performing their duties to NYCHA’s standards. Property managers at the developments report to her, and she spends a lot of time meeting with them, as well as superintendents, resident leadership, and others.
Ms. Dawson’s home base is at Kingsborough, but she makes weekly visits to all her developments. “I pop up sometimes, other times I’ll call them and let them know I’m coming to review certain logs or walk through the premises. I work to find out some of their challenges and difficulties so I can assist in any way I can.”
As a supervisor for many years, Ms. Dawson loves to help her employees move up at the Authority. “When I see potential in people, I try to push them. I’ve had caretakers that went above and beyond, and I knew they’d be good maintenance workers, so I’ll have them shadow a maintenance worker for the day and then they wind up flying. I had some bookkeepers I knew should be a housing assistant, so I taught them how to interview and do the job.”
Ms. Dawson is also a former NYCHA resident. She lived with her family at Baisley Houses from birth until she moved out of her parents’ apartment as an adult. She recalls her parents telling her that theirs was the first Black family to live at the development when it opened.
“I’m from NYCHA; I grew up there and I wound up at NYCHA and I never left. I love helping people and I’m all about getting the job done, whether there’s recognition or not. In any title, any position I’ve ever been in at NYCHA, my favorite thing has been putting a genuine smile on someone’s face for the day; whether it’s staff or residents, that smile showed that not only was the issue solved, but that the person is extremely pleased.”
