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QUESTION
Why was the HRA site in the West Bronx closed, and what are the plans to improve service accessibility?
1:57:11
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Council Member Althea Stevens questions the closure of a Human Resources Administration (HRA) site in the West Bronx due to a lease issue and the implications for local residents' access to services.
- Commissioner Molly Wasow Park acknowledges the closure was due to a lost lease linked to landlord issues.
- Park mentions efforts to maintain service presence and plans to better distribute services across the borough in the future.
- Park admits the need for improved communication regarding service changes.
- Stevens stresses the displacement and increased difficulty accessing services for her constituents, highlighting the journey's hardship from Highbridge to Hunt's Point.
Althea Stevens
1:57:11
As we know, HRA site was just closed, and I know it was because it was a leasing issue.
1:57:19
Something else.
1:57:20
But I'm really concerned that a whole section of people in the Bronx and the West Bronx now have to travel so far to get to a new site and really trying to just get a better understanding because the the reasoning's behind it and the way my office has been having an influx because we were their next door neighbors, and now we have become a HRA center, which we can't.
1:57:42
Right?
1:57:42
Everyone is saying that they haven't gotten notices and all these things.
1:57:45
Like, I just this rollout has been very messy in the sense of, like, like I said, we've we've been getting a lot of folks in my office.
1:57:52
We've had a lot of people standing outside, not being able to notice people coming back to the office saying that they weren't able to be served and just thinking about this could have been a better transition and also how we are now really putting a number of people in a community out of their way to not have to get services.
1:58:11
And I'm really concerned about this.
1:58:12
And is there a plan on getting services closer to the West Bronx and to my district anytime soon.
Molly Wasow Park
1:58:21
Yep.
1:58:22
Thank you, council member.
1:58:24
Yet you're correct that this traced back to a a landlord issue.
1:58:29
We were we're subject to the the winds of the real estate market as So we did lose our fairly suddenly lost a lease on on one site, and so had to re restructure share services so that we were making use of the real estate that we did still have.
1:58:45
We acted very quickly to make sure that we still had a physical presence for all of our real estate of all of our functions.
1:58:51
And I think over the Couple of years, we'll be able to do better and to distribute services more evenly across the borough, but we do need to do some work on building out some of the sites space before we're able to do that.
1:59:07
Certainly, if we have the notice piece of it, if that has not been adequate.
1:59:12
We can we can make sure that we are re noticing.
1:59:15
And I think from the point that that deputy speaker, I'll flag this to us we have done some additional nursing.
1:59:23
Happy to follow-up with you offline if we need to be doing more.
Althea Stevens
1:59:26
Yeah.
1:59:26
I just I just wanna say again, like, I think sometimes especially folks forget how My district is a little isolate, especially the hybrid area.
1:59:34
And to go from hybrid to Hunt's point, That is that is like a 2 for a zone.
1:59:40
And so we have people who already need services now having to figure out how to make a journey.
1:59:45
And so even the thought around like, oh, Some of them have been told, like, oh, you can do some of this stuff online, blah blah blah.
1:59:51
If they had those services, they wouldn't need it.
1:59:54
And, you know, even to to go to the extent of, like, A lot of times when they were going to the HRA office, they would still have to come to my office, whether it's to get copies and all these other things.
2:00:03
And so there's a whole slew of services that they're gonna miss out now.
2:00:06
Because we did.
2:00:06
We're kinda hands in hand.
2:00:07
And I'm not saying that they needed to be there, but I think the consideration for how far it's out, it's really a displacement and a disservice to my district.
2:00:15
And I think that I know you're saying it's gonna take a couple of years.
2:00:18
I don't know if we have a couple of years because people will suffer in the hybrid area of the on my district.
Molly Wasow Park
2:00:23
We're happy to work with you on that.
Althea Stevens
2:00:25
Thank you.