NYCHA Eliminates Nearly 268000 Repair Work Orders From Its Backlog

NYC Housing Authority


Press Release


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 1, 2013
Contact: media@nycha.nyc.gov, (212) 306-3322

NYCHA Eliminates Nearly 268,000 Repair Work Orders from Its Backlog

NYCHA is working to clear the entire backlog of repairs in 2013

The New York City Housing Authority today announced that as of November 1, 2013, it has reduced the number of open work orders from a peak of about 423,000 to approximately 155,000. The current reduction of about 20,000 work orders continues a year of steady progress that has resulted in almost 268,000 fewer open work orders. NYCHA has now reduced the backlog by approximately 80 percent, and is well on the way toward achieving the target of eliminating the backlog by the end of 2013. This reduction is a result of NYCHA’s Action Plan to improve its accountability and efficiency in responding to maintenance and repair work orders. At the conclusion of this initiative, the Authority anticipates that the number of work orders that will be open at any given time will be approximately 90,000. This represents the number of work orders NYCHA would have if workers were handling maintenance requests in an average of 7 days, and more complex requests in an average of 15 days.

Since the beginning of the year, NYCHA has created almost 1.9 million new repair work orders and eliminated more than 2.15 million work orders. NYCHA has also reduced the average time it takes to address key work, including roof fans, front doors, compactors, intercoms, mildew and extermination to less than two weeks. By systematically reviewing the work orders, the Authority has been able to better assess the work that has been done and is still needed to be done. This past month, in an effort to continue to improve productivity, NYCHA implemented a pilot program to determine if changing the assigned locations of some skilled trades staff improves efficiency. What has become clear is that NYCHA will need to continue to prioritize its work given the budget constraints, which worsened with sequestration. Recognizing that there are limited resources, NYCHA staff will not be able to address work that is primarily to improve the appearance of apartments until the fiscal situation improves.

NYCHA has been challenged in meeting the aggressive goals in this initiative by summer vacations and by HUD-mandated physical assessments that have significantly increased work to improve public spaces. This effort has already produced more than 61,000 additional work orders, of which about 54,500 have been completed. This work, originally scheduled to be completed in November, will now continue through January because of postponements resulting from the federal government shutdown. This additional work increases the number of work orders and requires NYCHA staff to balance completing these efforts and the work within apartments. Productivity has increased over the year, and even with the additional public space work, the staff is continuing to address new needs and the work that has been scheduled. To date, NYCHA has added 565 employees to support the overall work order reduction plan, including 389 new maintenance and skilled trade workers.