Meet Samantha Rogers, Strategic Planning Manager

For Samantha Rogers, a Strategic Project Manager at NYCHA, improving the lives of residents is personal. As a native New Yorker who grew up in a Manhattan NYCHA development, Ms. Rogers appreciates the fact that NYCHA is constantly trying to find new ways to support residents. Coming to work for NYCHA, Ms. Rogers pointed out, has allowed her to advocate for residents “from the inside.”

Ms. Rogers, who joined the NYCHA team in 2020, is part of the Resident Participation and Civic Engagement department. She oversees and facilitates resident leadership groups, including the Resident Roundtable, Citywide Council of Presidents (CCOP), and Resident Advisory Board (RAB), to promote dialogue and engagement among resident groups, NYCHA staff, and external agencies. She also has a seat, along with several NYCHA colleagues, on the Community Advisory Committee, which fosters partnership between City agencies.

Prior to NYCHA, Ms. Rogers worked at the Office of the Mayor’s Census Task Force in 2019 as part of a nationwide effort to raise awareness in underrepresented communities about local and federal censuses taking place in 2020.

Ms. Rogers brought that experience with her to NYCHA, where she is responsible for liaising and engaging with resident groups on the issues and decisions impacting their communities. “We engage with residents on a broad scale, in person and virtually,” she said. “In addition to several weekly meetings with resident leadership groups, our coordinators also go out to the developments very frequently, at least three times a week.”

Some of the external agencies that she and her team facilitate partnerships with include the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Department of Youth and Community Development, Fire Department, and Public Housing Community Fund.

Ms. Rogers is most proud of her work regarding NYCHA’s Resident Roundtable. She played an integral role in the development of this resident group and continues to facilitate and execute its ongoing efforts. The Resident Roundtable is an outlet for residents to voice their concerns and opinions on resident safety and security, quality of life issues, quality assurance, as well as resident satisfaction and oversight.

This forum was created to enable a greater number of residents to weigh in on issues impacting their developments. “We already had our Citywide Council of Presidents,” Ms. Rogers noted, “but we needed other voices – those who were not necessarily in resident leadership. We needed the added voice of the everyday resident.”

She also manages the Citywide Council of Presidents (CCOP), a body comprising all resident association presidents. The CCOP gives each development a say in how initiatives play out at the development level. By managing the relationship between the CCOP and NYCHA, Ms. Rogers can ensure accountability in fulfilling the memorandum of agreement between the two parties. Within the CCOP, Ms. Rogers is also responsible for the Resident Advisory Board, which advises NYCHA on the submission of the Authority’s annual plan.

Resident engagement and satisfaction, Ms. Rogers is keen to point out, is at the heart of what NYCHA strives to do, and she is pleased to be able to contribute to these efforts.

“The most rewarding thing I get to do is empower our residents and ensure that they have a voice.”