NYCHA Chair Russ Discusses Housing Preservation at Panel
On September 15, NYCHA’s Chair and Chief Executive Officer Gregory Russ participated in a virtual panel discussion organized by “City and State,” a media organization covering New York’s local and state politics and policy. The event, titled “Design & Construction in a Post-Pandemic Era,” was moderated by former Queens Borough President Sharon Lee, from Ichor Strategies.
The main topic of the panel discussion was the current and future state of the design and construction business in New York. The panel consisted of five other industry experts: Jamie Torres-Springer, Commissioner of the NYC Department of Design & Construction; State Senator Brian Kavanagh, Chair of the Housing, Construction and Community Development Committee; Tom Scerbo, AIA, Senior Vice President & Metro New York Executive of AECOM; Michael Sutton, CEO of Infrastructure Engineering, Inc. PC; and Spencer Orkus, Partner and the Managing Director of Affordable Housing of L+M Development Partners.
Acknowledging that construction in New York was hit hard by COVID-19, the panel participants discussed the lessons learned from the pandemic and potential improvements on the horizon. Chair Russ highlighted how NYCHA plans to preserve and upgrade all of its housing. Speaking about NYCHA’s Blueprint for Change proposals, Chair Russ emphasized that the process has involved, and always will involve, deep resident engagement.
“I think one of the things that has driven a lot of discussion is that people are afraid of losing their housing,” Chair Russ said. “They see many examples of housing being lost in other cities. Even though Blueprint is designed to increase the funding available for our housing, people are worried about moving from one subsidy platform to another, even though that means a lot more money and a lot more flexibility. We’ll continue to listen to their concerns and ideas and incorporate them in the Authority’s plans.”
“We are in a moment that has not existed in the past decades: We talk about not only investing in public housing but many other critical infrastructures,” Chair Russ noted, adding that new, more sustainable approaches will be used to rehabilitate NYCHA buildings and apartments.
“Money brings an opportunity, sure,” Chair Russ concluded. “But money also brings an opportunity to think about how we’re going to do construction differently in light of what we know from the COVID-19 pandemic, recent storms we’ve encountered, and how we plan to rehabilitate our apartments over time. We are hopeful that it will open some new doors for us.”
