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Strategy is Essential
Working together with state, federal and local officials and our many community partners this year, the ECC/HANH team’s honorable feats included:
• Canceling all evictions and providing rent relief in July for 1,280 families totaling $408,000 in non-federal and non-public dollars • Participating in agency-wide
Census 2020 push
• Launching 12-point Inclusive
CT agenda to desegregate CT neighborhoods and towns • Receiving an increased bond
rating from Standard & Poors
& successful financial audits
• Removing lead hazards,
continuing lead abatement, and providing necessary repairs to elevators, sewers and furnaces with a savings of $500K in MTW funds
• Joining The Bridges Collaborative initiative to advance racial and socioeconomic integration and equity in America’s schools • Creating a Youth Ambassador
Program in partnership with
Alder Honda Smith to engage youth and provide mentorship with community leaders • Partnering with the Open Communities
Alliance to #OpenWoodbridge and create a model to desegregate more towns in CT
• Upgrading electronic file management systems and cloud-based supports for remote working environments, the rent payment portal launch and new website creation
• Launching a partnership with
CEIO to further ECC/HANH’s equity work, vision, and mission • The addition of 10 new staff members to the ECC/HANH team
Despite the learning curves associated with COVID-19, ECC/HANH was able to exceed metrics in their operations and increase their level of services in comparison with FY19. Some of these accomplishments included a 99% HUD submission rate in the HCV department, the LIPH team having the lowest percentage of vacancies to date, and the CED department more than tripling their capacity and efforts to provide residents with individual wellness calls, food deliveries, relocation assessments and rent referrals.
STRATEGY IS ESSENTIAL Information Technology Department
The Information Technology department, with the support of the Finance department and other teams, shifted their strategy quickly to support the everchanging environment during FY20. They invested approximately $150,000 in CARES Act funds to make the remote working environment operate smoothly and, in tandem, the IT department outsourced its Help Desk to advance their technology with the best skills available in the industry.
Donna Piccirilli, Senior Vice President of IT, said that some of the initiatives her team already had planned were reprioritized to meet the emerging needs of residents and staff. The result? Access to pertinent agency data in real-time, a more connected team, better customer services to residents, and a focus on future agency initiatives. “In this world, we know that data is key, and we value the importance of providing quality customer service to our residents and being able to synthesize and access information from one source. Our cloudbased initiatives will allow us to drill down to the most infinite detail to meet our agency’s needs for the future.”
