Working Together for Residents

NYCHA is working with a number of partners, including the Mayor’s Office and various government agencies, non-profits, elected officials, and resident associations, to ensure residents have the resources they need during the COVID-19 pandemic, including food, masks, and hand sanitizer. 

In mid-April, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office announced that all residents in NYCHA’s senior buildings would be enrolled in the City’s food delivery program over the coming weeks to make it easier for residents to get food delivered directly to their door. The City’s program provides home-delivered food to seniors and people with chronic health conditions who cannot leave their home to get food.  

Currently, 30 of NYCHA’s senior buildings are receiving bulk delivery of meals from the City twice a week, with people on the ground to help distribute to residents. NYCHA plans to have all 69 senior buildings enrolled in the program by the end of May. NYCHA’s Family Partnerships Department, part of Community Engagement and Partnerships (CEP), hired 36 part-time workers to help deliver food and supplies. 

Staff in CEP recently became trusted enrollers in the City’s food delivery program and can enroll residents directly into the program. During their regular wellness calls to seniors, NYCHA staff have directly enrolled 715 seniors in the food program (as of June 4, 2020), which means eligible seniors do not have to call 311 or visit the website to sign up. Since the beginning of the pandemic, NYCHA staff have made 86,928 wellness calls and have personally spoken to 45,951 residents. 

The City provided NYCHA with 30,000 individual 8-ounce bottles of hand sanitizer, which will be distributed at senior residences. NYCHA is working with community-based organizations, the NYC Department for the Aging, and the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development to help distribute the sanitizer. NYCHA has also installed hand-sanitizing dispensers at each of its senior buildings.  

The Mayor’s Office also mailed masks and gloves to all NYCHA residents. Residents received one mask and one pair of gloves for each member of the household. These were mailed in late April to early May. Governor Andrew Cuomo shipped NYCHA resident associations (RA) hand sanitizer and masks for distribution to residents of the developments. The gallon bottles of hand sanitizer and masks arrived at RA offices across the city in April.  

“Even though the associations didn’t know that they were going to receive these big gallon bottles and have the responsibility to distribute, many were very resourceful and creative in figuring out their distribution,” said Ukah Busgith, Senior Director of NYCHA’s Family Partnerships Department. “For instance, at Pomonok Houses, the RA purchased smaller bottles with Tenant Participation Activity funds and packaged the bottles into nice gift bags. Others had to bring their own containers, a good mix of resourcefulness.”  

Though NYCHA was not directly involved in the shipment and distribution of hand sanitizer and masks from the Governor’s Office, its Resident Engagement Department (also part of CEP)  worked with volunteers to distribute the remaining hand sanitizer to residents at developments without resident associations.  

In May, Resident Engagement also helped distribute 1,500 reusable, washable face masks to NYCHA residents donated by Atoms, a Brooklyn-based shoe company, and will continue to assist residents and partners throughout the pandemic. Later this month, the department will help distribute another 6,000 masks from Atoms to NYCHA residents throughout the city.