Tyrone Thomas: “Stay engaged, even if they’re upset”

A year after the reha­bil­i­ta­tion of New York’s historic Harlem River housing complex began, Tyrone Thomas was relieved to have the slog of the most inten­sive construc­tion finally behind him. As the general manager with C+C manage­ment, which over­sees the city-owned prop­erty, handling the public housing prop­erty was no light task. It included over­seeing nearly 700 apart­ments through a years-long upgrade project, handling construc­tion time­lines and contrac­tors for the upgrades, and also managing the public housing complex’s hundreds of tenants through the process, many of whom have lived there for nearly half a century. 

“These are people that have been in their apart­ments for 30, 40 years,” said Thomas. Understandably, they didn’t all welcome change — and managing their emotions about the process was a large part of Thomas’s day-to-day work.

Balancing day-to-day oper­a­tions and tenants’ well-being during the property’s reha­bil­i­ta­tion was para­mount for Thomas. The work was not always easy, but there were a few things that Thomas said helped his team keep things running rela­tively smoothly. Consistent resi­dent engage­ment was one of them; manage­ment held monthly town halls so that they received routine feed­back from tenants. That direct feed­back was impor­tant to keep the lines of commu­ni­ca­tion with tenants open throughout the entire process. The firm also main­tains a social services arm which helps tenants with issues beyond the construc­tion and routine main­te­nance concerns. 

“[You need to] stay engaged even if they’re yelling, even if they’re upset,” said Thomas, who noted his office applies an ​“open door” policy for resi­dents. ​“These are people who’ve been in certain condi­tions for a long period of time. Be patient with them.”

Another key factor that helped the firm miti­gate issues during the retrofit was dedi­cating special­ized teams to address specific needs. Many of the upgrades meant tenants had to temporarily relo­cate for six weeks while their units were under­going construc­tion. The firm tasked a dedi­cated team with supporting tenants’ relo­ca­tion process, in order to help alle­viate some of the burden on indi­vidual resi­dents. The relo­ca­tion team not only coor­di­nated with resi­dents during their moves in and out of the orig­inal units, but repre­sen­ta­tives were also on site when the moving service arrived, and even helped tenants pack their belongings. 

Thomas believes that this hands-on approach made a big differ­ence with resi­dents. ​“We were able to do [tenant relo­ca­tions] not seam­lessly, of course with little hiccups here and there, but we were able to resolve most of the issues with that kind of care and engage­ment,” he said. 

Beyond his team’s work, the general manager cred­ited the rigorous over­sight that comes with the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program with holding the HRH complex accountable. 

“They’re coming to want to inspect [every­thing]. They want to see what’s going on, to make sure that we’re doing every­thing that we’re supposed to do to resolve issues,” Thomas said.

Those extra eyes helped ensure that tenants’ well-being remained a priority for manage­ment, both during the construc­tion and thereafter.