Allan Appel Photo
DuBois-Walton and Berkowitz.
Lights, leaks, and faster action on snow removal and illegal dumping.
And a better sense of community between the housing authority tenants and the rest of the city, through a narrowing of the digital divide.
Those were some of the ambitious prophesies and hoped-for outcomes from a new partnership announced between the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH) and New Haven-born SeeClickFix, the global tech firm whose software platforms enable citizens report non-emergency problems and help government staffers respond with alacrity and transparency.
HANH headquarters at 360 Orange St.
A proposal authorizing HANH to enter into a deal with SeeClickFix, a $15,000 pilot project to last one year, passed unanimously Tuesday afternoon at a regular board meeting at HANH’s 360 Orange St. headquarters.
SeeClickFix software is used in cities throughout the world including, of course, New Haven. This is the first time the home-grown innovators have developed a partnership with a public-housing authority.
SeeClickFix founder and CEO Ben Berkowtiz was thrilled that HANH has been the first to sign on.
Berkowitz was on hand at Tuesday’s meeting to explain the collaboration, which will be in development over the next few months and go online perhaps in March.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to provide a [level] of connectivity and accountability, and a great opportunity for New Haven to lead the way again in civic technology,” he said.
The aim is for the partnership to allow both HANH tenants and neighbors living near HANH developments to call in, for example, a complaint about snow removal delays or lights out or the universally most common complaint of all, illegal dumping.
When fully developed, the SeeClickFix platofrm will provide HANH with structured groupings of complaints, organized around lights and leaks or personnel issues, and electronically shoot them to the staffers tasked with repairs and clean-ups.
That’s the way the city government’s relationship, begun in 2009, now works with the company.
HANH Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton pointed out that tenants already have their own way to report problems, an internal platform, which at least for the foreseeable future will continue to operate in tandem with SeeClickFix platform.
Short and board Chair Erik Clemons.
City government (which is separate from HANH) has over the years integrated the SeeClickFix platform so that it is a direct part of the departmental operations. That may yet be the kind of integration and efficiency to develop at HANH, but not during the pilot year, DuBois-Walton
HANH board member Matthew Short said the arrangement is precisely the kind of step necessary for HANH to keep fulfilling its mission in an era of tightening budgets, when technology might save money.
As it does with all its partners or customers, SeeClickFix not only works out not only structured requests by category to shoot off to managers and departments, but also erects protocols to keep some matters private.
For example, ad hominem complaints about a neighbor, which could cause legal liability, will be logged in but sent to HANH by the platform-to-be-developed, without ever being seen on the site publicly, Berkowtiz surmised.
As on all SeeClickFix platforms, the postings will be anonymous, although Berkowitz pointed out that in the tailored structuring for different customers, as with the city’s different departments, some identification likely may be asked for.
In the case of the city’s zoning complaints, for example, he said that the SeeClickFix posting requires an address or contact for the complainant, because Livable City Initiative or the Building Department needs to contact the poster.
“When there are issues of privacy, it’s all internal,” said Berkowtiz.
DuBois-Walton reported another hypothetical but not infrequent situation: “If someone in a Section 8 house reports that ten people are in residence and six are not on the lease,” that would be the kind of complaint that the SeeClickFix platform would send directly and internally to the staff at HANH in charge of lease enforcement.
That would not be the case with the anonymous report of a pothole, she added.
Byrne and Berkowtiz.
“It’s an opportunity to reinforce the notion that we’re good neighbors, integrated into the community,” she said.
Berkowitz said more than 20,000 individuals in New Haven have posted issues for correction. The culture of transparency and a more efficient and public response have built appreciation for city workers, he said.
The Connecticut Mental Health Center on Park Street is another new client for SeeClickFix, which has developed software tailored to not-for-profits.
The go-between for SeeClickFix at HANH was Emily Byrne, HANH’s director of community engagement.
Tenants won’t need to own computers to access SeeClickFix. The software works on phones, too.
This is a great initiative. But some housing authority tenants do not have computers or smart phones. Has the Housing Authority or SCF come up with a way of serving them?