NYCHA Launches NextGen Neighborhoods Stakeholder Committees; Kicks-Off Search for Resident Committee Members
Comprised of residents, community representatives and elected officials from each development site, the Stakeholder Committee will work directly with the developers, ensuring constructive dialogue and accountability
NEW YORK—The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) earlier this year announced the launch of Stakeholder Committees for NextGen Neighborhoods and is seeking resident committee members for the first two development sites—Holmes Towers in Manhattan and Wyckoff Gardens in Brooklyn. The Stakeholder Committee is an advisory group that will work directly with the selected developer by representing the interests and concerns of NYCHA residents, neighbors, and the community.
Each NextGen Program site has a Stakeholder Committee comprised of, at a minimum, three residents from each building—including at least one youth (ages 18-24), one senior resident (ages 64+), and one general resident (no age requirement) to ensure a diversity of perspectives; as well as one Resident Association member, one non-NYCHA resident from the community, and 5-7 representatives from community-based organizations, advocacy groups, and elected officials.
“As we protect and preserve NYCHA for all our residents, we want to ensure that residents have an active voice in their community,” said NYCHA Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye. “Engaging our residents and the community has been at the core of the NextGen Neighborhoods program. The Stakeholder Committee will make sure they continue to be a central part of this process.”
NYCHA NextGen Stakeholder Committee Meeting.
NextGen Stakeholder Committee applications were accepted online and in paper form at public and resident-only meetings until May 6, 2016. Stakeholder Committee selections were announced on May 30, 2016.
Centered on resident and community stakeholder engagement, the NextGen Neighborhoods program enables NYCHA to generate revenue, which will be reinvested back into the development sites and across NYCHA’s portfolio, by leveraging a 50-50 split of market-rate and affordable housing units to be built on underutilized NYCHA property. In addition to creating more, much-needed affordable housing options for low-income and working New Yorkers, this program will generate revenue for critical needs to serve current NYCHA residents.
Unlike previous approaches that presented a finalized plan for residents after the fact, NYCHA has been seeking resident input at the front end to help shape the final plan. Their input will inform the character of the residential/commercial mix at sites, the pros and cons of building locations, and the look and feel (that is, the design and landscape) of the new construction – all of which will help integrate the new building into the community. Their feedback will also guide NYCHA in determining priorities for capital repairs in their buildings, which will occur concurrently with new construction. Through the Stakeholder Committee, residents will continue to be actively engaged with their voices heard.
To that end, NYCHA has held 34 meetings and conducted floor-by-floor outreach with residents from Holmes Towers and Wyckoff Gardens since Fall 2015. This dialogue with residents has informed the Request for Proposals for developers, which NYCHA issued this past Spring. Developers will be selected by Fall of 2016, and transaction is expected to close by the end of 2017.
Residents can learn more about NYCHA’s NextGen Neighborhood here.
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