Bronx Times Story
By Jason Cohen [originally posted on May 13, 2020]
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. has issued a new report outlining the environment the borough’s housing nonprofit organizations are facing in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, titled “Bronx Housing Organizations Adapting and Recovering amid COVID-19,” aims to identify key issues that are imperative in reaching out to the Bronx’s most vulnerable communities in order to continue to flatten the curve.
The report is the culmination of a series of conversations that led to a virtual forum, held on April 15, with over 20 organizations joining together to identify the issues facing housing nonprofit organizations. The goal is to find solutions through support and partnership on five central points:
- Financial and operational organization.
- Property management and rent collection.
- Maintenance and day-to-day activities.
- Tenant care, support, and communication.
- Remote and technological capacity.
“This report gives us a snapshot into the issues that some of our housing not-for-profits, and maybe some of your landlords, are facing in light of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Diaz said. “We wanted to gather information and hear from those who are working on a different side of the front line.”
The full report can be read at https://on.nyc.gov/2WmSaF1.
The report identifies opportunities moving forward, including intake of tenant experiences to better align potential resources with these needs, leveraging the Bronx Community Relief Effort, which aims to raise $10 million to support effective on-the-ground operations focused on meeting the essential needs of residents, including filling gaps in public financing and broader grant programs and developing resource pools and aggregates to support contingencies and existing infrastructure that might be struggling to survive.
“I want to thank Enterprise Community Partners and Acacia Network for their work in organizing and facilitating this virtual forum with our Planning and Development team,” Diaz said. “My hope is for this to be a continuing conversation and that we all continue to collectively work towards those answers and solutions to make us all more resilient in the long-term.”
For more information on The Bronx Community Relief Effort, click here: www.thebronx.org.