Anita Kwok testifies on NYCHA OAC repair and site control issues

Hello, thank you, Councilmember Drong, for the opportunity to testify.

My name is Anita Kwok.

I am a policy analyst at United Neighborhood Houses.

Many of our members run OACs and NITRA facilities that deal with a bunch of challenges, such as unresolved repairs and unclear site control.

So from plumbing to kitchen equipment to electric...

To electrical work, providers have to choose between paying for repairs without the resources to do so, or spending countless hours chasing a contact at NYCHA that could possibly help them with their issue.

Even if a provider has outside resources and the ability to conduct major capital improvements, the unclear or total lack of site control slows down or makes these efforts impossible.

Solving these challenges requires a strong interagency approach with NYCHA and NYC Aging, but we do not believe that this relationship has materialized in practice.

In our experience, NYC Aging and NYCHA often defer these responsibilities to each other without a solution in sight.

Our members question if a NYCHA liaison exists, and there's often no resolution for the tickets that they submit to NYCHA.

Sometimes

Projects have been paused for years due to lack of funding, and that leaves OACs without operating, without critical systems.

This poor bureaucratic process leads to a prolonged repair timelines and uncertainty for providers to serve older adults safely.

Site control issues are also a huge barrier to resolving repair needs in NYCHA community spaces.

Our members have been asked to take on responsibilities such as extermination or signing leases without city funding to cover rent, even though rent is an...

An allowable cost under most human services contracts.

Providers cannot be expected to assume significant maintenance at a site that they do not control and have the funding to maintain.

As a landlord, NYCHA is responsible for OACs and should pay for routine maintenance and services such as extermination, particularly because OACs also serve the older adults in NYCHA facilities.

I also...

Want to say that a first step towards resolving community needs in NYCHA community spaces is ensuring that every human service organization operating in a NYCHA facility has a lease, and these leases must fairly divide the responsibilities between the provider and NYCHA,

and most crucially include funding for the rent from the service contracting agency like NYC Aging.

Without addressing this underlying issue, capital needs in NYCHA spaces will go unresolved for years.

And lastly, I

want to add that a dedicated funding stream for fully funded capital services is really important and we thank you for your advocacy in the

past budget year for the expansion of a capital fund at OACs, and we look forward to doing it with you next year.

Thank you.