August 14, 2013
By Stephanie West
New York, NY – After securing data on the repair backlog for New York City’s public housing, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has launched NYCHAwatchlist.com, an online tool tracking repair requests at each of the 334 public housing developments in the city. Topping the list was Harlem’s Grant Houses, with 6,203 repairs that have waited on average for 344 days.
For the New York City Housing Authority’s 400,000 tenants, the new watch list spotlights thousands of repair requests that have gone unanswered and unfixed for years. The website displays every individual NYCHA repair order by ticket number, ranks each of the city’s developments and features an analysis of unresolved repairs by type and the length of time they have gone uncorrected.
By tracking public housing repairs online, the new watch list allows tenants and housing activists to hold NYCHA more accountable on fulfilling its promises. The current watch list reflects conditions as of February 2013.
“Our public housing got this bad, in part, because there is zero accountability. NYCHA is a black box. Tenants deserve to know that their ceilings will actually get patched or that mold will actually be removed,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. “We’re going to use the watch list to hold NYCHA’s feet to the fire.”http://nychawatchlist.com/
