NYCHA Trust Holds First Board Meeting, Hires Vendor to Run Upcoming Votes

NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt said the Preservation Trust is essential to helping NYCHA get “tremendous capital needs” and aiding residents to getting quality repairs. The first development to vote on whether to join the Trust is expected to be chosen this summer.

NYCHA’s Preservation Trust held a much anticipated first board meeting Friday afternoon—a roughly 20-minute brief of members introducing themselves, laying ground rules and sharing expectations for the initiative, which officials say will help the cash-strapped public housing authority raise funds for repairs.

The seven members of the now all-woman board were led by Chair Lisa Bova-Hiatt, who just Thursday was announced as the permanent chief executive officer of NYCHA, following former CEO Greg Russ’ resignation earlier this year.

The newly-minted public entity Trust, officials say, will be able to tap into additional funding NYCHA currently doesn’t have access to, and issue bonds to borrow money to fund capital repairs. NYCHA needs an estimated $40 billion to address conditions across its aging housing stock.

Residents will have the opportunity to vote on whether they would like their development to participate in the Trust or to join another initiative, the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT), in which NYCHA developments are put under private management. Both programs transfer apartments from Section 9 public housing to Section 8. Tenants can also vote for their development to remain in its current funding structure, Section 9.

Bova-Hiatt said the Preservation Trust is essential to helping NYCHA get “tremendous capital needs” and aiding residents to getting quality repairs.

“It is imperative that we get this right,” Bova-Hiatt said during the board’s first meeting. “NYCHA residents deserve this so I think we could not ask for a better, more capable group of thoughtful individuals than those sitting with me today.”

Members of the new board include other city housing officials, including NYCHA CFO Annika Lescott-Martinez,  Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer and retired NYCHA Superintendent Pamela Campbell.

Two members, Karen Blondel of Red Hook West Houses and Barbara McFadden of Nostrand Houses, are NYCHA tenant association presidents. Baaba Halm is a New York market leader for Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit organization.

“I’m glad that our residents will have equal opportunity to have the option to vote for the Trust because NYCHA has a lot of capital repairs that need to be done,” McFadden said. “I’m happy to be part of this board, I look forward to working with NYCHA and I’m definitely an advocate for the Trust.”

An initial 25,000 units are slated to be part of the Trust—but the long term goal is 110,000 units to be transferred over.

Campuses that have not been converted through the PACT program will be eligible to vote, and the first development to do so is expected to be selected this summer, officials said.

At least 20 percent of heads of household named on leases in a given development must cast a ballot for the decision to be binding, what critics have said is too low a participation threshold, though NYCHA says it will “strive to achieve turnout far greater.”

When the time comes for residents to cast their ballots, an election administrator will be needed to ensure “independence and transparency of the election process,” according to NYCHA.

NYCHA has selected MK Services as its vendor company to run the votes, granting the firm a $250,000 contract in May, public records show. Since 2005, MK Services has run more than 1,000 elections for unions ranging from 500 to 165,000 voters, according to their website. The company declined to comment on the deal, referring questions to NYCHA.

“NYCHA is pleased to work with MK Elections to implement this unprecedented election in the near future,” a public housing spokesperson said.