OCH Chief Operating Officer Guy Arseneau provided an update on the impact changing COVID-19 has on OCH’s service delivery.

The key points were:

• Maintenance Work: Work is limited to emergency work and electrical and plumbing services.
• Pest Management: Service is currently at 100 percent, however, a final, follow-up visit may be deferred while we are in the Red Zone.
• Offices: Services at OCH offices are by appointment only – and any appointments that can be shifted virtual service will be.
• OCH lounges: Lounges remain open for essential tenant support programs, such as the Ottawa Food Bank, but are limited to a maximum capacity of five.

For information on how to pay your rent and other helpful resources, visit our COVID Q&A page.

As the snow melts teams have started litter cleaning and preparing for grit clean-up! Repairs are being completed to refresh communities for the season. Each year the City of Ottawa runs the Cleaning The Capital Program. Early registration began on March 15. For more information, visit ottawa.ca/clean.

Tenants can begin installing air conditioners in April, it is important to follow the OCH installation standards which are on our website at www.och-lco.ca/air-conditioners-ac/

Starting late spring we are implementing an automated process that will offer every tenant an opportunity to complete a survey after maintenance, integrated pest management and Home Assessment visits.

The survey will be made available after every service so you can provide feedback. The information will be helpful to us because we will receive information in a timely way.

Introduced by the City of Ottawa, the bylaw comes into effect on August 31, 2021. This means OCH processes will be changing in order to meet compliance and will have positive impacts on tenants. We may host a special Tenant Talks session to give more information on the changes and what they will mean for OCH tenants. Watch our Tenant Talks webpage and social media channels for more information.

Project leads Laurene Wagner and Erica Lavergne spoke about the My Home feature which is scheduled to go live in May. Erica gave a live demonstration of submitting a repair through the new self-serve options.

To access My Home, tenants will need a smartphone or computer and access to the internet.

This is what Sandra Pilote, a Tenant Champion and one of the tenants to test the new software, had to say.

My three favourite things are:

1. The ability to update my contact information – I often forget to let people know when there’s been a change.
2. Making a work order is a breeze.
3. I can access my account to make sure that my rent comes out of my account right on the first!

The My Home service can be used to update your contact information, access your account and request services such as maintenance and pest management. The new system is pictured-based and very easy to navigate. Before you get started though, here are some things to remember.

1.  You cannot book pest management and maintenance work in the same work order – they are two different teams.
2.  The service is meant for non-urgent repairs – emergency repairs will still need to be handled through the Call Centre.
3. If the city is still at the Red Control level at the time of the My Home launch, the non-urgent repair function may be disabled until OCH can once again complete those types of repairs.

As the service goes live, we will be seeking feedback from tenants.

Chris Strotmann, Manager of Safety Services Operations, spoke about some of the ways the work of Community Safety Services has changed as a result of the pandemic.

Many residents of buildings in the downtown area have reported issues related to loitering, as a result, CSS has been doing proactively patrolling to address the problem.

Virtual Patrolling

Another new initiative is virtual patrolling, each shift one member of the team is assigned to monitor the CCTV cameras in the more active buildings, in order to deal with incidents in real-time.

With everyone at home, calls for things like noise complaints are on the rise. So far in 2021, CSS has responded to 11,225 calls. Based on stats from March 11-17, Chris illustrated the average day and types of calls.

Total calls: 129

• Reactive calls: 92
• Community Patrol: 37
• Loitering: 15
• Noise complaints: 13

Mehdi Louzouaz, a Community Developer with OCH, talked about a pilot program in six buildings, which includes signage to show tenants where to access onsite support services. Did you know OCH works with partners such as Aging In Place, Options Bytown and Salus Ottawa to help meet the diverse needs of the 32,000 tenants living in OCH communities?

Mehdi went over a pilot program to place six micro libraries in the Overbook community. The libraries were built by tenant volunteers thanks to a partnership with Ottawa City Woodshop. Once painted, the libraries will be installed at sites on Prince Albert, King George and Lola streets. They will hold copies of The Quarterly – the OCH tenant newsletter, tenant notices, information from local resource centres and children’s books donated from the St. Laurent branch of the Ottawa Public Library.

The My Home system will keep one year of history for past work orders.

Chris Strotmann said he would take that back to the Call Centre. The incident numbers should be provided through the Call Centre and the Community Safety Worker.

At this time, no. But we may expand the service in the future.