Outdoor Recreation in Public Housing: Learning from New York City

Basketball court at Hilltop Manor Apartments in Scranton

What can Scranton learn from New York City? When it comes to a surprising topic – outdoor recreation – our area can learn a surprising amount.

You may think of New York as an urban jungle, full of concrete, beeping cars, and towering buildings that block out the sun. As the largest and highest density city in the United States by far, most New Yorkers live in large apartment buildings with precious little green space.

For the city’s lowest-income residents, accessing quality outdoor recreation is even more difficult. The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), who provides affordable housing for 511,000 people, maintaining playgrounds, basketball courts, and gathering spaces is an immense challenge. Bureaucratic inefficiencies, old buildings, and decades of funding cuts have left NYCHA $78 billion behind of its capital needs.

With such a huge backlog of broken plumbing, elevators, and roofs, how can NYCHA even consider building new outdoor fitness equipment? That’s where the Public Housing Community Fund comes in.

What is the Public Housing Community Fund?

NYCHA co-created the Public Housing Community Fund in 2016 as a public‑private partnership to support the needs of public housing residents. The Fund is an independent non-profit that raises private donations money to support health, leadership, and workforce initiatives. Through a licensing agreement with NYCHA, the Fund creates outdoor recreation facilities to strengthen the health and social cohesion of public housing residents.

What are the benefits of working with a non-profit for outdoor recreation?

By raising private funds, the Public Housing Community Fund can bypass much of the bureaucracy and regulatory requirements of NYCHA. In their independence, they can be a trusted conduit for residents’ opinions. For outdoor recreation projects, they start by convening residents to discuss their recreation needs.

Once residents decide upon a project, the Public Housing Community Fund can work fast so see residents’ vision come to life. On a visit to Scranton earlier this month, the Fund’s Executive Director Alex Zablocki described large outdoor recreation projects that completed in record speed, going from groundbreaking to ribbon-cutting in less than three months.

What are lessons can non-profits learn from working with housing authorities?

1.     Speed is Responsiveness. Public Housing Community Fund doesn’t start its resident engagement process until they have their funding lined up. They only talk to residents when they know the project budget they can use to deliver on needs. Once a project is decided, the Fund can start working on a project right away. Residents don’t have to wait years to see their ideas acted upon.

Project speed requires a commitment to fundraising and access to donors. Public Housing Community Fund has been successful at identifying donors willing and able to fund outdoor recreation spaces, often tying outcomes to lasting health improvements for residents. In the Scranton area, we need to do a better job of identifying the right donors and making the case that robust outdoor spaces are worth their investment. Fundraising success provides the staff to quickly respond to community needs and opportunities.

2.     Effective Prioritizing. NYCHA developed a comprehensive outdoor recreation master plan, which guides Public Housing Community Fund’s work. Since even the master plan has too many projects for a non-profit to take on, the Fund prioritize projects further. Zablocki told us his organization balances areas with “low-hanging fruit” (small but impactful projects) and greatest needs in deciding where to work next.

For Valley In Motion and the Scranton Housing Authority, projects like murals and pollinator gardens are examples of projects that can be quickly completed. Pulling the community together to decide what to paint on their basketball courts, for example, can both beautify an area and build social cohesion. It signals to a community that we care, are willing listen and act. It can also spark a deeper, resident-led conversation about larger aspirations of a housing community that needs addressing.

3.     Work Responsibly. Delivering on the needs of public housing residents is serious work. Many residents have had setbacks, feel aggrieved, or see change as risky. Hearing residents through and recognizing how they see progress in the engagement process is just as much an outcome as the project itself.

Design Trust for Public Space has created a From Imagine to Activate guide for housing residents and community partners in New York City. This guide spells out a responsible engagement process that puts all parties on the same page.

In some instances, residents’ needs change over time. In New York, playgrounds may not be needed as much as activities for older adults. The Public Housing Community Fund has installed active adult fitness zones – outdoor, standalone exercise machines – that serve as a relatively low-cost alternative to repairing underutilized play equipment.

At Valley In Motion, our mission to create, improve, and activate public space works to improve quality of life for all in the Lackawanna Valley. Creating new outdoor recreation at our public housing in Scranton not only fulfills our mission but serves those with the lowest incomes in our communities. These projects not only build community health, but improve the quality of our relationships with one another as we work together with a shared sense of purpose.

Please support this work! In order to work fast, effectively, and responsibly, we need the staff and project budgets to turn these aspirations into reality.