not fi le formal complaints. Kaplan
said that management
was working to address the issues,
and that the heat outages
are the fault of “insuffi cient
and outdated equipment.”
“We pride ourselves in responsiveness
and work to address
heat issues as soon as
we are made aware of them,
which is especially important
during colder months,”
Kaplan said. “We are investigating
the cause of the issues
and will perform repairs and
upgrades that address the
heat and hot water systems
so our residents can count on
having these basic services
that they’ve long deserved for
many years to come.”
A spokesperson for NYCHA
echoed that sentiment,
arguing that RAD is in place
specifi cally to fund and facilitate
repairs to old equipment
that causes frequent outages
as currently seen.
Not-so-smooth
transition
The lack of heat is only the
beginning. Barnes, who has
lived at Linden Houses since
1967, says she was shocked at
the abruptness of the transition:
NYCHA was gone and
C+C was in place on Dec. 29,
the same day that NYCHA
publicly announced conversions
COURIER L 18 IFE, JANUARY 21-27, 2022
to private management
at Linden, Penn Wortman,
Boulevard Houses, Fiorentino
Plaza, Belmont-Sutter Houses,
and Williamsburg Houses, totaling
a $1.4 billion investment
in over 5,200 apartments.
“They should’ve had a sixmonth
transition before NYCHA
offi cially pulled out,”
Barnes said. “I was under the
impression that they were
working together, as they were
getting everything together.”
Kaplan said that a management
turnover of this scale
was bound to come with growing
pains, and encouraged residents
to inform them of any
issues that arise.
“Our team is working to
address all outstanding complaints
that NYCHA received
before Dec. 29,” he said. “As
with any management turnover
at a residential complex
— NYCHA or otherwise —
residents are bound to notice
a change. We encourage residents
to let us know if there’s
anything we can do to make
sure that transition happens
as smoothly as possible.”
NYCHA spokesperson Rochel
Leah Goldblatt said that
the authority and the new
management company had
been engaging with residents
for the past two years and that
the authority is working with
stakeholders to address issues
related to the transition.
Under RAD, a Department
of Housing and Urban Development
program developed under
the Obama administration,
decaying urban public housing
stock is able to leverage public
and private fi nancing for repairs,
often through “partner”
companies, a condition made
possible by conversion to Section
8. Developments typically
convert to private management
in the process. Many residents
at developments undergoing
RAD fear the program
is synonymous with privatization
of public housing, but
residents at Linden and other
complexes have had their fears
dissuaded when told that HUD
would continue covering their
rent beyond 30 percent of their
income — even if private developers
brought in raise rates —
and that NYCHA will still own
the property.
NYCHA’s continued ownership
is key to why many thought
the beleaguered housing authority
would stay around, at
least for a little while, to ensure
a smooth transition. But that’s
been anything but the case.
For instance, public housing
residents are used to submitting
“tickets” via the 707
hotline or the NYCHA app
when they’re in need of repairs;
the app allows real-time tracking
of the ticket status, and provides
some measure of accountability
in the frequent event of
problems going unaddressed.
When the heat went out following
conversion, frustrated residents
phoning 707 were upset to
hear NYCHA reps say it was no
longer their problem.
“The day NYCHA left, the
next morning people called the
707 hotline to say, ‘We have no
heat.’ And NYCHA said, ‘We
don’t deal with you anymore,'”
Barnes said.
For the fi rst few days, C+C
had no system in place whatsoever
to fi eld complaints, she
said, but as the heat outages
dragged on, they pasted an incorrect
phone number on residents’
doors to call for help.
After that fi asco, C+C
pasted the correct number on
residents’ doors, Barnes said.
Kaplan, who said support staff
are available to residents 24/7,
forwarded a fl yer to Brooklyn
Paper which he said went
out last week, containing two
phone numbers, an email, and
an offi ce address and hours.
Information was presented in
English, Spanish, Haitian Creole,
and Chinese, but Barnes
said she’d never seen it before.
Further, under the new system,
C+C does not create tickets
to track project status, she
said. Residents can also no
longer check NYCHA’s online
portal detailing all current
outages of heat, hot water, electricity,
gas, and elevators for
work status in their development,
as Linden is not managed
by NYCHA anymore. Linden
residents said elevators go out
of service constantly, but they
can no longer be monitored by
the public in real time.
RAD’s history in NYC
The 5,000 apartments converted
in Brooklyn in December
represent about a third
of the NYCHA housing stock
that has undergone RAD, the
authority says; all told, RAD
has brought about $3 billion
of much-needed cash into the
destitute housing authority.
RAD shifts funding for public
housing from Section 9, aka
local housing authorities, to
Section 8, aka rental vouchers.
NYCHA continues to administer
the Section 8 subsidy, set
rents, manage waitlists, and
“oversee the rehabilitation
and conditions at the developments,”
Goldblatt said.
This story has been edited
for brevity. For more, visit
BrooklynPaper.com.
NYCHA
Continued from page 14
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