NYCHA residents connect with digital vans

By ISAAC MONTEROSE 

 Malin Ali Bey, a driver for one of the city Housing Authority’s digital vans, smiles as he recalls all the different types of people and causes he’s been able to assist.

“We’ve helped Pre-K For All, we’ve help people get jobs, we’ve helped people graduate from college,” said Bey. “We got a lady get her associates; now she’s working on her bachelor’s degree strictly from the Wi-Fi trucks.”

That was Marsha Robinson, a Bronx mother of four who was able to obtain an associate’s degree from Monroe College after using the laptops from digital vans for two years.

Announced back in 2012, during the Bloomberg administration, the digital van program is meant to provide low-income housing residents with the high-speed internet needed in this digital age.

However, getting an education isn’t always the purpose of these vans. It’s often about jobs.

That was the case on Oct. 4, when the van visited Farragut Houses, a housing project just north of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway near downtown Brooklyn.The purpose of the event was to help residents complete their annual online re-certification process to confirm their eligibility for public housing – but many also used it to seek employment.

“If you are looking for a job then you need to have a computer. There is no more word-to-mouth, there is no more ‘Hey, are you hiring?’ There is no more, ‘Hey, I have a friend’ because everything is routed to a website, even the most simplest jobs: construction , lawn mowing,” explained Kim Maxwell, one of Bey’s co-workers. “So without this service, what do the residents have? A library, which is timed, 15 minutes, 20 minutes? So yes, we provide a great service.”

The vans are also used for checking emails and printing and scanning documents, according to Bernard Williams, another digital van driver. He said children use them not only for doing homework but also for recreational uses: playing games, going on Facebook and YouTube.

Residents’ opinions of the digital vans were mixed. Many saw the vans as a great help for getting themselves re-certified but still had some reservations. “It’s easier, you get information…you just put your information and it pops up everything. It’s easier than doing paperwork,” said Brenda Miller, 52. “But actually, I think they need to teach people more about how to use [the laptops] because I did my renewal but I didn’t know how to scan the documents so I had a problem with that.”

Another resident, Lavaughn Jackson, 39, said that her main concern was the lack of easily available information about the digital van event in the first place. “I think it needs more exposure. This is my first time finding it. What happened was I went to the rental office and I needed to finish [her form] and [they] told me about the van and I live in this building and I passed and I didn’t even recognize [it],” she said. “It just needs to be more exposed. I’m sure many people don’t even know.”

Another  resident who asked not to be identified shared similar concerns when he vehemently complained about the lack of notice about the event. Overall, though, the Farragut residents seemed to appreciate the vans and their tireless drivers who also double as IT support. “I feel like it is because with the mobile [digital van] it gives us more space Instead of being done in one set room it actually widens the area,” said Shaquela John, 23.. “It supplies more people and it helps the community out better.”