Q&A
Process for opening and operating OACs on NYCHA property
0:43:31
ยท
4 min
Council Member Hudson inquires about the process for opening and operating OACs on NYCHA property. Ryan Murray provides a detailed explanation of the competitive process and considerations involved.
- NYC Aging follows procurement policy board rules for selecting OAC operators
- Request for proposals (RFP) process is used to select providers
- Considerations include service requirements, program size, and geographic distribution
- Evaluation of proposals based on population needs and available resources
- Discussion of discretionary funding options and oversight of council-funded programs
Crystal Hudson
0:43:31
Thank you.
0:43:32
Can you describe the process for opening and operating an OAC located on NYCHA property?
0:43:38
So who makes the proposal and to whom and what is the timeline from proposal to opening?
Ryan Murray
0:43:45
I'll I'll refer to the competitive process, that is that was in place, and that would will continue to govern how we select, older adult centers that are under direct contract with the department for the aging.
0:44:01
I'll refer to very briefly the partnership, and, you know, with NYCHA, and then I'll I'll pause for any follow-up questions you might have.
0:44:10
So, like most New York City agencies, we adhere to the procurement policy board rules, right, and where we're putting money on the street for operating a center, that is from dollars that the administration puts out, that is competitive.
0:44:26
And so, there's a request for proposals processed, and the last one we had a few years back resulted in some of the new providers, that are in the portfolio now.
0:44:38
That process, as you know, is involved, and usually includes us talking about, you know, what the services are.
0:44:47
We spend a fair amount of time educating communities on what a full service program should look like.
0:44:53
We allow for, given our experience with NYCHA and other communities, a variety of sizes of programs, like folks may run a smaller older adult center, like and I'm just gonna give a quick number.
0:45:06
The team will give me a look.
0:45:08
But, you know, let's say it's 25, 30 people in that center.
0:45:11
It's a little tinier than, say, a center that is 85 to a100, and there are others that usually might have a average daily participation even beyond that, a larger center.
0:45:22
So the numbers matter in terms of, obviously, the space and accommodation, the staffing, that is in place, director, someone helping with case assistance and navigating benefits, people that are activity specialists.
0:45:37
But we, set that up and we look at geographic areas.
0:45:42
So we've usually referred to catchment areas or I just say there's where the programs will be.
0:45:49
And we divide up the available dollars in that way.
0:45:52
Look we, on our side, from the planning perspective, will first consider what the population of older New Yorkers looks like in an area.
0:46:02
We, the census data, right, was released recently, and we also, just had our survey, our older adult survey.
0:46:09
And thank you to council for publicizing that where we heard back from 9,000 older New Yorkers.
0:46:15
Our job is to make sure that the programs are where people where the services are needed.
0:46:19
We go through the competitive process.
0:46:21
People evaluate the proposals and then we make our selections.
0:46:25
There's some negotiation that happens in terms of budget and so on, and then we are off to the races.
0:46:31
In terms of where the programs are, as you know, there's a 106 that are in NYCHA, but there's, you know, some 200 others, that are in community, whether it's city owned buildings or it's working with a landlord.
0:46:44
Often, it's the church in your community.
0:46:47
I'm thinking of a few right now just looking at both of you, or all 3 of you.
0:46:51
There are churches that will, you know, have a a free space available and has historically had that.
0:46:57
So the ability of the proposer to say that they have an agreement for where the program would be, there's a commitment from that community, and then they go through the competitive process, review the proposal, and then we select and we're off to the award.
0:47:12
That's the longer winded answer, but I wanted to just be really clear about the competitive process.
0:47:18
There may also be discretionary funds that the council puts up, right, where you say, I wanna expand or run another program down the block because the numbers support it, and that is up to the council.
0:47:31
But where we are getting discretionary dollars, then we, of course, will educate the provider if they aren't an existing, operator of an older adult center on what the standards say.
0:47:42
Right?
0:47:42
And in general, we say, you know, like, you need a director, you need someone overseeing programs, here's what a nutritious meal looks like, here are the standards for recipes.
0:47:50
So when we're involved in those fuller scale programs that are discretionary funded, we also help to, bring oversight and support to the council dollars and ensure that what you intended in your districts, is actually happening.
0:48:04
So that's how the programs come to be.