News from the Chair & General Manager

Dear Colleagues,

It’s been an exciting two months since I assumed the position of Chair and CEO of the Housing Authority. I have been visiting developments across the city, meeting with NYCHA staff and residents to hear about how we can best tackle the Authority’s challenges together. I am deeply impressed by the passion and dedication of NYCHA employees, and I’m honored to work with you to serve hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. The General Manager and I will be reaching out to you in regular emails like this one to share the progress we’re making.

Federal Monitor

Since I started, my priority has been strengthening our partnership with the federal monitor to help us meet performance standards in key areas and all local laws and regulations. We are preparing plans to improve the reliability of heat and elevator service, eliminate pests and mold, and comply with federal and local lead-based paint regulations. Stay tuned for updates next month.

New Department: Strategy & Innovation

I’d like to welcome a new member to the executive team: Eva Trimble is the new Executive Vice President for Strategy & Innovation. Eva has worked for the City of New York for nearly 20 years, spending the last decade at the Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD). Eva served various roles at HPD, most recently as Executive Deputy Commissioner with a portfolio that included Financial Management, Tenant Resources, Asset & Property Management, Technology, and Human Resources.

The Strategy & Innovation Department will provide a strategic, data-driven approach for the Authority to use scarce funding effectively and efficiently and improve service delivery for residents. It will focus on the engagement with the monitor and consultants to structure and drive the development of a new, unified strategic vision and organization plan for the Authority.

This unit will include two existing teams: Performance Management & Analytics (led by Vice President Anne-Marie Flatley and Director Sybille Louis) and the Special Projects team (led by Director Arvind Sohoni). We are also renaming Special Projects to Strategic Planning.

The Customer Operations team that reports to Performance Management & Analytics will remain under Executive Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer Kerri Jew. The new S&I unit will focus on the engagement with the Monitor and consultants to structure and drive the development of a new unified strategic vision and organization plan for the Authority.

Personnel Announcements

Brian Honan has been promoted to Vice President of Intergovernmental Relations. Brian has served NYCHA for 13 years, forging close relationships with residents, elected officials, and community leaders. Brian’s contributions are many, but I want to highlight two: He successfully advocated for significant state investment in NYCHA for the first time in almost 20 years and helped build resident and advocate trust in the RAD program as a founding member of the RAD Roundtable. These contributions will help tens of thousands of residents.

Jay Flaherty started this week as our new Quality Assurance Officer. Jay has spent the last three decades working in law enforcement and investigations, including positions at the Internal Revenue Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and most recently as Associate Commissioner with the NYC Department of Investigation. As Associate Commissioner, Jay oversaw approximately 160 investigators, auditors, attorneys, and support staff.

We welcomed five new Borough Liaisons – Shatina Beamon, Maryan Escarfullett, Shameika Chappell, Stephanie Arroyo, and Dominique Durant – in the Office of the General Manager. The Borough Liaisons will work with residents and NYCHA departments to assist with various matters and provide great customer service. By hiring current and former residents, we aim to foster stronger landlord-tenant relations and include valuable resident input in our work to improve the way we operate.

Under the leadership of Director Rudy Murillo in the Office of Emergency Management, we brought on 12 new field coordinators. The field coordinators will help coordinate efforts at emergency incidents on NYCHA property. They will support the incident point of contact by ensuring the necessary actions are being performed during the emergency, assisting with logistical and resource requests and communications, and providing situational updates to senior leadership.

Preparing for the Heating Season

The heating season is upon us. Last heating season, we made tremendous strides to reduce the total number of outages by 31 percent and accelerate the average time to restore heat compared to the prior heat season. We are continuing the improvements we made last winter – extended staff hours and roving heat response teams, maintaining a “Heat Desk” to monitor heat-related work orders, annual inspections and repairs of heating equipment – and hired additional staff to support these efforts.

Highlighting a Hardworking Employee

On NYCHA Connect, we feature hardworking staff members who provide excellent service to residents. The latest profile is of Dana Hylton, a NYCHA Exterminator since 2012:

“One of the best experiences of being a NYCHA employee is when a resident comes up to you to tell you how much they appreciate you and the work that you are doing. At Marcy Houses, for instance, residents have thanked me for the rodent reduction efforts there, stating that the development is the best it’s been in years in terms of rodent control.”

I am proud to work with employees like Ms. Hylton – she reminds us why we work at NYCHA and inspires us to do our very best.

Celebrating the NYCHA-CUNY Scholars

I was fortunate to attend the annual NYCHA-CUNY Scholarship Award Ceremony on September 17, where we awarded our 200th scholarship. The NYCHA-CUNY scholars all have remarkable ambitions and incredible stories, including Yanna Almonte. Ms. Almonte is a first-generation college student who graduated from Hostos Community College as the class valedictorian. She plans to help address health disparities in underserved communities after getting her bachelor’s degree at City College.

Thank you for your service. I look forward to updating you again soon.

Sincerely,
Greg Russ