Operations (Asset Management)

About the Operations Department
The Albany Housing Authority has fully embraced and adopted HUD’s blueprint for what is called Asset Management. Several years ago the Authority took on the responsibility to re-tool both its Property Management and Maintenance Departments, combining both departments under one department head, now calling the new department, Operations (Asset Management). With re-tooling the departments the maintenance staff moved from a centrally assigned workstation to a permanent assignment at a specific property. Instead of working for a Maintenance Foreman and the Director of Maintenance, they now are supervised directly by the Asset Manager of the property. The Asset Manager is directly supervised by the Senior Asset Manager who is then supervised by the Director of Operations. The Director of Operations being responsible for all staff in the department.

Department Staffing
The Operations Department is the largest department in the Albany Housing Authority. The department consists of 63 employees. Staffing consists of 50 maintenance personnel, 7 Asset Managers, 2 Senior Asset Managers, 3 Support Staff and 1 Operations Director. Overall, the department consistently sets high level goals to achieve effective property management and resident satisfaction. Those procedures and policies that make up the performance indicators are monitored and managed through a comprehensive computerized work order management system.
Procedure and Guidelines to Measure Performance
The work procedures adopted by the Albany Housing Authority exemplify its philosophy of delivering the highest quality of maintenance and property management services to its residents. Work is prioritized daily to ensure that the most important maintenance work is completed first and that no resident suffers from a loss of any services. Emergency work requests are abated well within the HUD mandated allowance of twenty-four (24) hours. Vacant units are prepared quickly to minimize revenue losses. Absent any emergency work, vacant unit preparation is front loaded along with routine tenant work requests. Routine resident work requests are handled daily as well using all available staff not assigned to emergency work. The Operations Department average turnaround time for routine work order requests is about 21 days, which is the below the HUD mandated 30 day threshold. The Authority offers its staff on-going levels of maintenance training, either using in-house skilled personnel to individually teach classes or by taking advantage of outside entities offering related training in the maintenance and skilled trades’ areas. In the past this has been done in partnership with the unions.

Responsibilities
It is the responsibility of the Operations Director to ensure that there are sufficient and clear procedures in place to allow the operational staff to implement the maintenance policies and procedures. Each property or AMP as it is now called (Asset Management Property) is responsible to manage the maintenance function. The Asset Managers and Senior Asset Managers are in a sense mini directors in charge of accessing and assigning the work to their staff each working day.

All procedures include the following:
• A statement of purpose;
• The job titles of the staff members responsible for carrying out the activities in a formatted procedure;
• Forms, the proper documentation to carry out the work and identify what was needed to bring a particular work assignment to closure;
• Frequency of all required work, whether routine, emergency or preventative maintenance work;

Procedures, once adopted, are continually under review and evaluation, they are updated as needed. Adjustments are continually made to address the installation of new equipment and the greater demand to maintain said equipment in order to achieve the full life of that equipment. The Operations Director establishes measures, checks and balances, which will allow the effectiveness of the maintenance systems and activities in place. Local codes, quality control standards, Authority collective bargaining agreements and staff job descriptions are all taken into consideration when establishing all policies and procedures. The property level management staff, Asset Managers and Senior Asset Managers, are responsible to consistently verify that all appropriate standards and policies are adhered to by the site based maintenance staff when completing the work. The Asset Manager is required to selectively choose a predetermined number of completed work requests and field verify that all work reported as performed and completed was done so to the full satisfaction of the resident. The Asset Manager is looking to verify that the site staff completed the work requested in a neat and workman like manner. That all work areas were left clean and that the materials noted on the work order were in fact used and installed correctly. Snow removal is handled totally in-house at all properties. The Operations Department documents the work for each and every snow/ice emergency.

Maintenance Coverage at the Property Level
Maintenance coverage is available to all residents Monday – Friday 8:00am – 4:00pm excluding holidays. Emergency Maintenance is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Contact
The phone number for maintenance at all sites, at any time day or night is,
(518) 447-0047

Normal property business hours are Monday through Friday, 8 am to 4:30 pm.

For those hours above and beyond the normal business hours, the Operations department offers maintenance supervision and staff on call. They will respond to any emergency situation, however they are not available to respond to routine calls for service, it’s EMERGENCIES ONLY, that’s important to remember. Routine maintenance calls must be called in during normal business hours. Examples of Routine and Emergency Maintenance can be found by clicking the Maintenance tab on the left hand side of our website.

To contact someone in the Administration Building, please contact:

Colleen O’Keefe
Director of Operations
Albany Housing Authority
200 South Pearl Street
Albany, NY 12202
Phone: (518) 641-7500