Intro

In December 2014, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) transitioned the management of six Section 8 developments comprised of 874 apartments to a new public-private partnership known as Triborough Preservation Partners. This transaction brought in $80 million for renovations as well as new property management.

The results of the study to date confirm that this pilot has been a success for NYCHA, its private partners, and most importantly, the residents. This innovative policy should serve as a model for the Authority to ensure both the affordability and quality of its housing.

As part of the Next Generation NYCHA plan, this pilot was an experiment in making new capital funds available to repair existing buildings and introduce new partners and new property management. This innovative transaction could serve as a model for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program.

In early 2015, NYCHA approached the Citizens Housing & Planning Council (CHPC) to design and implement an evaluation of the pilot. CHPC’s work is supported by grants from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, and Triborough Preservation Partners.

This report details the interim results of our study evaluating this pilot initiative. CHPC compares data from the Triborough buildings to a set of control group properties that are similar in size, resident demographics, and location but continued to be wholly owned and operated by NYCHA throughout the study period.

To undertake this analysis, CHPC studied information from three sources:

  1. Quantitative data from NYCHA and Triborough regarding work orders, energy consumption, turnover, re-rental time, rent collection, and evictions.
  2. Property management interviews with staff from NYCHA and Triborough.
  3. Tenant Survey of residents from both NYCHA and Triborough buildings (conducted in partnership with Baruch College Survey Research).

CHPC’s research shows that at the Triborough properties:

  • The volume of maintenance work orders are down
  • Rent collection rates are up
  • Energy usage is down
  • Apartment turnover rose
  • Re-rental time is longer
  • Residents are broadly satisfied

At this interim stage of evaluation, it is clear that the properties participating in this pilot initiative have undergone large-scale improvement. As a result, pilot group residents are far more positive about their living conditions and their outlook for the future. At the same time, apartment turnover rose at the pilot group and apartment re-rental time took longer than at the control group properties.

The results of the study to date confirm that this pilot has been a success for NYCHA, its private partners, and most importantly, the residents. This innovative policy should serve as a model for the Authority to ensure both the affordability and quality of its housing.

Our report was also covered in The Wall Street Journal, which you can read here.

Please wait while flipbook is loading. For more related info, FAQs and issues please refer to documentation.