AGENCY TESTIMONY
NYCHA Co-monitor Matt Cipolla's testimony on monitorship progress and priorities
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4 min
Matt Cipolla, NYCHA Co-monitor, provided testimony on the progress and challenges of the federal monitorship of NYCHA established by the 2019 HUD agreement. He discussed the core values of transparency, accountability, and resident focus, highlighting both improvements and ongoing issues in NYCHA's performance.
- Cipolla reported mixed progress, noting success in lead paint remediation but continued struggles in areas like repair response times and addressing mold and leaks.
- He emphasized the importance of viewing the monitorship through residents' eyes and ensuring that improvements are felt at the individual apartment level.
- Key priorities for the coming year include improving resident communication, reducing repair wait times, enhancing staff performance and accountability, and accelerating the deployment of capital funds for major improvements.
Matt Cipolla
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Thank you.
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Good afternoon.
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I'll focus on the core values first.
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The first one is transparency.
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Our goal for our report is to give the public and other stakeholders such as you and this committee a one stop shop to see exactly how NICE is progressing in meeting the goals that it committed to meeting in the HUD agreement.
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Our August report describes a mixed bag.
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Including certain commitments like addressing overall pest populations or heat failures in individual apartments that previously were not tracked or measured during the agreement's 1st 5 years.
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The report also describes certain areas in which NYCHA has made progress, such as its success in identifying and remediating lead paint in more than 10,000 apartments.
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But in too many areas, NYCHA continues to struggle.
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Including in its slow response times to make repairs, particularly when it comes to basic livability areas such as mold and leaks.
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2nd core value is accountability.
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Any future progress is gonna demand that shortfalls and failures be identified and remedied.
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In our August report, we identified where NYCHA is falling short and meeting its sacred obligation to assure the safe and healthy living standards set forth in the HUD agreement its residents.
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And we have proposed a series of priorities for NYCHA to focus on to address these failures.
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In our future reporting, we will continue to closely monitor progress to ensure that NYCHA is held accountable when it fails.
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And we will hold ourselves to that same standard.
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And third, in echoing your words chairman, we focus on the residents.
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Far too often, we've heard from you, from residents, and other stakeholders, that they feel like residents and their concerns have not been adequately heard.
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We've heard that although NICA has made significant progress in certain areas under the agreement, its progress has not been felt by NICA residents too many of whom continue to live in apartments with mold, leaks, and pests, or who have to live with elevators that don't work, or in apartments that are too cold in the winter.
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We have committed to residents to always view this monitorship through their eyes understanding that for a resident, it doesn't matter if a boiler is replaced, if their own individual apartment remains cold, or for a mobility impaired resident, although they may appreciate that the response time to fix a broken elevator has shortened, It's cold comfort if they're unable to get in or out of their apartment more than twelve times a year because of repeated elevator breakdowns.
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Of course, our focus on residents would not be possible without their participation.
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For that, we want to recognize and thank the residents and resident leaders who have met with us, sent us emails, hosted our visits, attended our town hall, and called us to share their stories and experiences with Nietcha.
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Many of them has met with us at their developments, facilitated meetings with other residents, and showed us firsthand the state of their apartments.
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And we also want to make sure to thank NICE for their open, honest, and collaborative approach that they've shown us since day 1.
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Now I'll talk briefly about some of our priorities based on what we found in our initial report.
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As the end of the 6 year of the ownership approaches in January, we look forward to working with NYCHA as it sets priorities for the coming year, and our work has identified several key areas where we believe progress is particularly urgent.
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The first is resident communication.
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Too often, a repair is not made because either Nieta does not show up for a scheduled repair or because a resident was not adequately informed or the appointment is not home.
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This has to be fixed.
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2nd is repair times.
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Nitro residents often face long wait times for repair work due to a significant backlog of hundreds of thousands of work orders.
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The third is performance.
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We have to raise the bar for the performance of NYCHA personnel agency wide and ensure accountability for that performance.
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And the 4th is capital.
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The more quickly the capital funds can be deployed to install new elevators to replace plumbing lines or to deploy new boilers, the better position Nitro will be to meet its various HUD agreement requirements and improve the lives of residents.
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We will continue to work on these and other issues in the years to come We thank you for having us today, and we look forward to answering your questions.
