Stevens questions DYCD coordination with NYCHA on Cornerstone facility maintenance

So I guess the first question I'm going to ask, cornerstone providers have repeatedly raised concerns regarding facilities.

maintenance, security issues, access to community center space within NYCHA development.

Can DYCD describe the coordination with NYCHA to address those issues?

When providers report maintenance or safety concerns, what is the process for resolving them and how does DYCD ensure that the communication between providers and NYCHA is timely and effective?

I will say this since I have left.

Which was four years ago.

Wait, I've been here five years.

I don't know.

But since I've not been in NITRA facilities, I've heard that it's a little bit better.

I did hear that.

I heard it's a little bit better.

Not a lot, but a little bit.

I'll take it.

I'll take that little bit.

I will say this.

We have a really good, over the years when we started back in 2010, you know, there was obviously, you know, growing pains, right?

But I think since then, 15 years, we just celebrated 15 years.

15 years later, we do have a really good working relationship with NYCHA.

We have standing meetings, monthly meetings, weekly meetings to speak specifically about facilities-related items.

We have a team on our end, our Youth Services Operations team, and within that team, they have folks that are dedicated for addressing any facility-related items.

We also have been very proactive in developing a centralized system that allows our CBOs to enter.

tickets.

Into the system, and then we work towards resolving them.

And you guys are also tracking the tickets now?

Yeah, we have.

That's what I heard, that you guys are tracking the tickets.

Y'all were not doing that before.

No, right.

I know.

Yes.

So we are tracking that.

And we also have, we've been able to procure, like, I think we have, like, three vendors that are dedicated for triaging anything that comes through for us.

And so they dispatch them out, and then the work can get addressed.

There are, whenever there's a structural related, to your point, like I have leaks, I had a room with leaks and I had a building upstairs and it could have been somebody washing, I don't know, putting on their dishwasher, right?

And so in those instances, we work really closely with NYCHA.

And so those weekly meetings are really critical in addressing those facility-related issues that...

Our vendors, nor DYCD, can address.

And so we work in tandem with NYCHA on those things.

Yeah, I mean, one of my challenges had always been, even when I was in the community center, like, there's residents who are also waiting to get their apartment fixed who live there.

And then it's like, I'm mailing about the community center.

And so it's also a challenge of, like, how do they prioritize and what does that look like?