Coming Together During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Over the past 15 months, NYCHA staff and residents have come together with various partners – City and State government agencies, non-profits, and elected officials – to ensure residents had the resources they needed, providing food, masks, and hand sanitizer; assistance learning technology that helps keep them in touch with loved ones; simplifying the process for residents to apply for rent hardships; and bringing COVID-19 testing and vaccines to NYCHA developments. These ongoing partnerships and assistance will continue throughout the duration of the pandemic.
Masks and hand sanitizer were distributed to NYCHA residents across the city a number of ways: Resident Association leadership gave out sanitizer sent to them via the City and State and other donors; NYCHA employees distributed donations from partners and organizations, including reusable and disposable masks.
A very big thank you to the Resident Association leaders across the city, who organized, volunteered, and cared for their neighbors by distributing food, masks, and hand sanitizer.
Throughout the city, NYCHA Resident Association members, NYCHA staff, elected officials, City agency and non-profit partners, and others worked to get vulnerable residents the food they needed.
Meals and grocery donations were delivered to residents’ doors, groceries were available for pickup at specific locations, and NYCHA staff helped enroll residents in the City’s food program to have meals delivered to them.
Older adults who had to keep themselves home because they were most at-risk for COVID-19 were isolated and disconnected from services, family, and friends. NYCHA partnered with Older Adults Technology Services (OATS) to get seniors the training they needed to use free tablets from the City; they learned how to stay connected via Zoom and other video apps that enable them to talk with their family members, take fitness classes, and attend church virtually.
NYCHA employees conducted major outreach to ensure residents, especially older adults at senior developments, had the health and social services they needed. Staff also posted flyers with important information to let residents know how to keep themselves safe throughout the pandemic.
Another big thank you to NYCHA’s frontline staff across the city, who reported to their work sites throughout the pandemic, working to keep developments clean, maintained, and address residents’ issues and concerns.
One way to keep NYCHA residents healthy and safe was to provide access to COVID-19 testing at their developments. NYCHA partnered with the City and State to host pop-up testing clinics at select developments.
Once COVID-19 vaccines became available, NYCHA staff worked with City, State, and health partners to create a sustainable model of vaccinations available for residents at their developments, setting up hub sites to reach residents at developments in proximity to each other, pop-up clinics, and standalone sites.
Many NYCHA staff volunteered their time to assist at the vaccine clinics.
Now that New Yorkers are being vaccinated against COVID-19 and New York City is re-opening, it is hopeful that the pandemic will soon be behind us.