NYCHA is proud to be a place where families can grow, thrive and build a life around the assurance of an affordable home through both good and bad times. While our mission always remains the same, we have transformed over the years to better serve New Yorkers and the great city we call home.

Just as NYCHA evolves, so do the lives of residents. Families expand, children grow into adults, people move on and move out, and their housing needs change. NYCHA and residents share a responsibility to make sure that we keep up with those changes, and that residents’ apartment sizes reflect their family’s true needs.

You may have heard about “right-sizing,” a key part of Plan NYCHA, our roadmap for the preservation of public housing. Right-sizing means that NYCHA is doing all it can to help residents living in under-occupied apartments – with more bedrooms than are needed by the families that live in them – move into appropriately-sized homes. This allows us to open up these larger units for families who need more space or are on the waiting list. Because almost half of these units are occupied by seniors, we also are helping many of our elders who may have difficulty taking care of a large apartment move into affordable senior housing with onsite support services. This will enable them to continue living independently in their own apartments.

More than 50,000 NYCHA apartments around the city are under-occupied. Half of them have two bedrooms occupied by one person. Many are headed by residents whose children have grown up and started their own households, or members of larger families who have inherited bigger apartments than they need.

DeReese Huff, the Resident Association president at Campos Plaza, was one of those residents. Her mother raised 10 children in the five-bedroom apartment she moved into in 1979. Eventually those kids moved on and the apartment was passed along to DeReese and her own daughter. Recognizing that there were many others facing the situation that her mother once had and who needed the extra space, she requested a transfer to a smaller apartment and now shares a two-bedroom unit with her 13-year-old daughter. “NYCHA gave us a great place to live,” says DeReese of the apartment she and her siblings grew up in, “and it’s only fair that we do the same for others.”

With more than 160,000 families on the public housing waiting list – that is almost one family waiting for every unit of NYCHA housing – and many more that have outgrown their current apartments and urgently need more space, there is a growing need to make things right. With your help, NYCHA is taking action.

If you are living in an apartment with more bedrooms than you need, you may have received a letter from NYCHA asking you to put your name on the transfer list as soon as possible. We will work with you to find an adequate apartment that works for you in a neighborhood of your choice, including your current development should an appropriate unit become available. We recognize that not all residents can be accommodated with their first choice.  We also know some residents will consider a range of housing alternatives, from news senior housing to Section 8. NYCHA understands that a one-size-fits-all solution is not the answer and we are prepared to work with each family (including providing moving assistance) to ensure an appropriate outcome.

I am sure many of you have questions and concerns about right-sizing, and I encourage you to talk to your Property Manager for more information. Working together, we can maximize access to public housing and give more New York City families the opportunities so many families have enjoyed throughout NYCHA's 78-year history.

Chairman, John B. Rhea