Working Together to Transform NYCHA

Engaging Staff and Other Stakeholders

As part of the HUD Agreement signed last year, NYCHA has been working on its Transformation Plan to change how it delivers services to residents. In order to do that, NYCHA needs to re-structure its organization, its management, and its workforce, while ensuring that stakeholder input is front and center in the decision-making process.

NYCHA has been conducting a variety of engagement activities since late last year, gathering feedback and ideas from residents, employees, partner agencies, and elected officials for what should go into the Transformation Plan.

“We don’t have a choice, we have to get this right,” said Arvind Sohoni, NYCHA’s Senior Director of Strategic Planning. “Maintaining these affordable apartments is too important – to our residents, to us, and to the city. To get it right, we need to listen to those who understand these problems best: our residents and our front-line staff.”

Property Management Case Study Workshops conducted earlier this year are a good example of this inclusive approach. Teams from across NYCHA, including residents, Property Management, Human Resources, Finance, and others, brainstormed property management strategies in a budget-constrained simulation.

Deputy Director of Strategic Planning Danny Townsend explained that each team in the workshop had to determine key functions of property management and then staff the case study accordingly. “Then we gave them the budget. In some cases, there was less money for staffing than they needed,” he said. “So, they had to think it through, be creative, and prioritize. All those findings and feedback were then wrapped into the planning process.”

Workshop takeaways included the desire for a decentralized property management model that would shift responsibilities and staff to the local level, and there was also notable feedback on the annual recertification process and procurement.

Employee engagement has been integral to the planning process, with cross-departmental working groups developing transformation plan strategies in the following areas:

• Work order process reform;
• Alternative Work Schedule (AWS) evaluation;
• Maintenance and repair decentralization and optimization;
• Annual recertification planning;
• Property-based budgeting; and
• Mission/vision planning.

In addition to these activities, the Employee Engagement Committee (EEC) has tested preliminary ideas in the Transformation Plan and is working on creating actionable implementation plans for creating a culture of service and empowering NYCHA staff. Staff “brown bag” and departmental briefings have helped keep employees involved throughout the process.

The EEC work has been especially impactful to Eva Trimble, NYCHA’s Executive Vice President for Strategy & Innovation: “We have learned so much through just listening to our employees, especially those in the EEC. A large part of this Plan includes changing the workplace culture at NYCHA, and nobody understands the change that’s needed better than these employees. And they are willing to step up and make this change happen.”

If you have ideas on how to change NYCHA for the better, NYCHA employees can email the Transformation Plan team at transform@nycha.nyc.gov.

In the coming weeks and months NYCHA will continue to expand engagement – including through resident and staff town halls across the boroughs and interaction with government officials, labor partners, and advocacy groups.

Stay tuned for more updates on Transformation Plan engagement activities.