NEW YORK-After several months of the New York City Housing Authority coming under fire on multiple charges of mismanagement, City Council speaker Christine C. Quinn and Public Housing Committee Chair Rosie Mendez on Friday debuted a proposal for a number of reforms to the organization.
The reforms will increase accountability at NYCHA and will bring transparency to the organization, according to the proposal's announcement. Suggested revamps would lead to an overhaul of the organizations allegedly flawed Section 8 computer system, and it would enable area residents to check online the status of outstanding work orders.
“If NYCHA is serious about improving its accountability to the more than 400,000 New Yorkers who call its developments home,” says Speaker Christine Quinn in the announcement, “the agency will immediately enact our recommendations to increase transparency and reduce bureaucracy.”
Specifically, Quinn and Council Member Mendez are calling for:
•An overhaul of the NYCHA centralized call center and the Section 8 computer system, which has sent erroneous eviction notices to tenants and has wrongly cutting off landlords from rent payments. In addition, Quinn and Mendez called on NYCHA to re-train staff on proper procedures to ensure errors are fixed sooner.
•NYCHA to make public information easily accessible by posting all call center work order requests online. They also called on NYCHA to issue monthly reports detailing changes in work orders, which would allow tenants to track the status of their requests and enable NYCHA to identify the developments most in need of repairs.
•NYCHA to implement an asset management system that will allow NYCHA to monitor and track the status of critical infrastructure—including boilers, roofs and plumbing—at all NYCHA developments.
Meanwhile, as reported in GlobeSt.com, a report issued around that time by the Boston Consulting Group alleged mismanagement by NYCHA on several fronts, such as the organization having 330,000 work orders on back log at that time. “It is clear that we have to solve our own financial challenges," says NYCHA chairman John Rhea in that article.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
