At the beginning of this year, the New York City Housing Authority had a backlog of 422,639 repairs work orders. In January, NYCHA and Mayor Bloomberg announced a new action plan designed to knock out the repair backlog by the end of the year. The plan included hiring on a number of new maintenance employees and efficiently completing more repairs each day than came in.
As of May 1st, NYCHA announced another significant milestone in their progress: another 148,859 repairs were knocked off of the backlog, meaning that NYCHA maintenance workers closed out that many more repairs than came in during the same period.
The ideal ratio of workers to apartments is 1:250, and NYCHA is nearly at that ratio. Having an “ideal” ratio would keep another backlog from building up and would significantly reduce wait time for repair completion. There are nearly half a million people living in NYCHA housing developments, and the number of work-in-progress repairs should eventually sit around 90,000 at any given point in time.
Cecil House is NYCHA General Manager, and has been a key player in getting the repair backlog taken care of. In just the first two months of implementing the plan, more than 73,000 work orders were completed. This most recent reduction in work orders brings the backlog down to 273,780, which is well ahead of schedule.
The original forecasted number of outstanding work orders for June 1st is set at 250,200, meaning that only about 20,300 more repairs need to be completed in the next month to reach that goal. NYCHA’s average monthly completion rate, however, has averaged between thirty and forty thousand. At that rate, the backlog could conceivably be eliminated well before the year is up.
NYCHA originally outlined its goal of expediting maintenance and repairs in its PlanNYCHA: A Roadmap for Preservation initiative, and so far they are certainly proving that they are dedicated to the task.
Photo courtesy NYCHA
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