NYCHA - Mayor Bloomberg And NYCHA Chairman Rhea Announce

NYC Housing Authority


Press Release


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 31, 2013
Contact: media@nycha.nyc.gov, (212) 306-3322 /p>

Mayor Bloomberg & NYCHA Chairman Rhea Announce Action Plan to Eliminate Backlog of Maintenance & Repair Requests in Public Housing

By Hiring More Workers and Improving Efficiencies, NYCHA Sets Goal of Eliminating Backlog by End of 2013

NYCHA Has Repurposed $40 Million from Administrative Costs to Frontline Through Cuts and Efficiencies

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and New York City Housing Authority Chairman John Rhea today announced an aggressive plan with the goal of eliminating the backlog of 420,000 open repair work orders in NYCHA properties. Sustained underfunding by the Federal government has forced NYCHA to cut maintenance and repair staff, while at the same time, NYCHA properties that were constructed decades ago have suffered, as federal capital improvement and repair funding has also declined. As a result of Federal disinvestment, the wait time for some non-emergency repair requests made today can be as long as two years. Under this plan, NYCHA intends to institute new operational efficiencies and make changes to processes that will result in their achieving the following goals: eliminating the entire backlog of outstanding repair requests by the end of 2013; permanently reducing the average wait time for repair work to one week for minor corrective repairs and two weeks for repairs needing skilled tradesmen; and responding to all emergency repair requests within 24 hours. NYCHA also will provide quarterly reports on the status of the backlog reduction. The Mayor made the announcement at the Drew Hamilton Houses in West Harlem where he was joined by Assembly Member Keith Wright.