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New York City Council
Oversight - Work Order Practices at NYCHA and PACT
Read summaries and jump into the video at the segment start.
Council staff welcomes attendees to the Committee on Public Housing hearing and asks everyone to silence devices and avoid approaching the dais. Staff also directs anyone wishing to testify in person to fill out a slip outside in the hallway.
Council Member Chris Banks calls the hearing to order and identifies himself as chair of the Committee on Public Housing. He announces an oversight hearing on work order systems used in NYCHA and PACT developments.
Banks explains that residents use work orders to request repairs and notify managers of conditions. He notes NYCHA has separate systems for complaints and work orders, while PACT properties use their own systems, causing open work orders to disappear during transitions.
Banks says open work orders have risen and fallen across mayoral administrations, with one-time funding used to reduce backlogs before they rise again. He criticizes that NYCHA's public work order data only goes back one year, preventing residents from tracking trends.
Banks says NYCHA and PACT residents report repairs take too long and that they are not updated on request status. He adds that PACT residents are unsure where to call when property managers do not respond.
Banks says a properly managed work order system can improve residents' well-being within days. He calls for NYCHA accountability, transparency from NYCHA and PACT partners, and timely complete work orders regardless of building management.
Banks thanks committee staff and then calls up the pre-panelists, including Jeremy Estrada, Keith Ramsey, Mateen Sarisi, Carla Hollingsworth, and Patricia Dickey. He notes Patricia Dickey is joining by Zoom.
Mateen Sarisi says he is co-chair of Manhattan Community Board 9's Housing, Land Use, and Zoning Committee and a NYCHA employee testifying in his personal capacity. He says NYCHA reorganization helped uncover disinvestment in work orders and HPD violations.
Sarisi argues that property management operations are siloed, which helped uncover issues but makes repairs hard to coordinate. He advocates for multi-trade teams and community partnerships to address multiple apartment issues at once.
Sarisi says the app does not let maintenance generate multiple work orders and instead leaves residents to figure out repairs. He says the app is not connected to the property management software, creating gaps and making it hard to reach planning staff.
Carla Hollingsworth identifies herself as secretary of the Stuyvesant Gardens One Tenants Association. She says residents were promised major renovations through PACT but are experiencing serious failures instead.
Hollingsworth says residents returned to apartments represented as newly renovated only to be relocated again due to leaks, sewage backups, and falling ceilings. She asks why contractors continue moving apartment to apartment before determining why completed work failed.
Hollingsworth says residents attempting to open newly installed windows had frames fall inward onto them, after which they were told not to touch the windows. She asks who installed and inspected the windows and how many failures have occurred.
Hollingsworth says residents were initially told there was no asbestos, but asbestos-containing material was later identified and encapsulated rather than removed. She calls for transparency about where asbestos remains, what was removed, and who inspected the work.
Hollingsworth says first-floor apartments were altered for wheelchair accessibility even where residents did not need accessible units, reducing usable space. She says residents were not shown altered floor plans and some returned to find their furniture no longer fit.
Hollingsworth says ETC manages about 22 contracting companies at Stuyvesant Gardens One and residents cannot get answers about who is doing what or who is accountable. She disputes the claim that renovations cost $380,000 per unit based on apartment conditions.
Keith Ramsey says Eastchester Gardens implemented PropertyMeld so residents can submit and track work orders online or by phone. He reports 3,280 tickets created, 98% completed, a median response time of about 24 hours, and a 3.3-day average turnaround.
Ramsey says residents receive automated notifications and can choose appointment windows, with every action timestamped. He also describes a joint RA Ledger with the Eastchester Gardens Resident Association that reviews open, stalled, or defaulted tickets every two weeks.
Jeremy Estrada identifies himself as a housing organizer from Western Queens and says his mother lives in Brownsville. He says his mother was told in August 2026 that kitchen cabinets and a sink would not arrive until October 2026.
Estrada says NYCHA developments suffer from roach and rodent issues and need more repair funding and clarity for tenants. He describes testing a cracked floor for a resident and getting a positive asbestos result after a months-long work order delay.
Patricia Dickey says work orders are often incomplete, delayed for months, or closed after workers claim she was not home. She says residents are sometimes left to do repairs themselves or manage without service.
Dickey says the app glitches and sometimes does not provide a work order number, while staff later tell her the number no longer exists. She says tickets are closed unexpectedly and residents do not know when workers will come.
Layla Law-Gisiko identifies herself as Democratic District Leader for Chelsea and says she is testifying about Fulton Houses and Elliott-Chelsea Houses. She says buildings slated for demolition still need basic maintenance and that NYCHA and partners have failed to respond.
Law-Gisiko says a tenant became locked in her apartment and the fire department had to break her door because NYCHA could not send a locksmith. She says the door remains unrepaired and a Fulton building entrance has been broken for weeks despite multiple tickets.
Law-Gisiko says Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea are supposedly covered by a Meanwhile Plan that should add security, pest control, and repairs, but none of that is happening. She says residents are told their buildings are privatized while NYCHA still says it is the property manager.
Law-Gisiko says residents who resist relocation find repair requests turn into relocation conversations and delays. She asks the Council to establish who is responsible for each repair category and whether residents slated for relocation receive the same maintenance service.
Banks asks Dickey about living without proper kitchen cabinets and relying on a temporary slop sink since September 9. Dickey says it is extremely hard because she goes to dialysis, cares for grandchildren, and can only use one arm.
Banks asks why NYCHA told Dickey remaining repairs would not be finished until March 2027. Dickey says she was told they were backed up, had no appointments, and that an outstanding paint order had to be closed first.
Banks asks whether NYCHA ever assessed the safety or accessibility risks of leaving Dickey in an incomplete kitchen for six months. Dickey says no one from housing raised that concern until Banks's office intervened.
Banks asks how hard it was for Dickey to get clear updates from management before contacting his office. Dickey says it was very difficult and that work only started moving after the chair's office stepped in.
Banks asks Estrada how his mother managed daily tasks while her kitchen was gutted and her pantry was in the living room. Estrada says his stepfather suffered asthma attacks from plaster dust and had to go to the hospital once.
Banks asks what explanation NYCHA gave for leaving the senior apartment in disrepair for two months. Estrada says communication was minimal and the reason given was that they were backed up.
Banks says his office intervened on September 14 and NYCHA completed the job in three to four days. Estrada confirms he contacted the office, they door-knocked his mother together, and repairs were completed by Thursday and Friday.
Banks welcomes NYCHA testimony and turns the proceeding over to committee counsel for the affirmation. The witnesses affirm to tell the truth before Banks invites them to begin.
Daniel Greene identifies himself as NYCHA's Executive Vice President of Property Management Operations and introduces Heather Beck. He says safe and decent homes are at the heart of NYCHA's mission and thanks the committee for the opportunity.
Greene says addressing significant capital needs is critical to reducing repairs and that Section 8 conversions through PACT and the Trust are primary tools. He says those programs renovate buildings and bring in partners for day-to-day operations.
Greene says residents can submit repair requests through the Customer Contact Center or MyNYCHA app and website. A maintenance worker assesses and performs standard repairs, while complex work or lead/asbestos testing creates tickets for NYCHA staff or vendors.
Greene says the Neighborhood Planning Unit was part of NYCHA's 2021 Transformation Plan, developed in response to the 2019 HUD agreement. The plan focused on heat, elevators, pests, waste, lead, mold, and inspections.
Greene says the Neighborhood Model created smaller property management portfolios and new roles. Neighborhood planners and secretaries schedule skilled trades, service coordinators provide contacts, and contract managers review vendor work.
Greene says work order reform decentralized skilled trades and streamlined scheduling. Assigning trades to neighborhoods or developments reduces travel time and helps staff learn the unique needs of their sites.
Greene says residents now receive automated mail, email, or robocalls when work orders are created, scheduled, or upcoming. He says missed skilled-trade appointments fell to 2.7% in July 2026 from 10.9% two years earlier.
Greene says a 2025 survey found 78.6% of residents rated completed work orders as excellent or good in July 2026. He also describes pest management and TEMPO text-message pilots that increased appointment confirmations and coordinated relocations.
Greene says NYCHA partnered with the Federal Monitor to build dashboards tracking work order volume, backlog, production, service-level times, quality assurance, and missed appointments. He says these data-driven metrics guide maintenance performance.
Greene says NYCHA maintenance workers receive about 98,000 new work orders per month and complete basic repairs in occupied apartments in less than four days on average. Since 2024, NYCHA has inspected every public housing apartment annually and created needed work orders.
Greene says NYCHA reduced the borough-based skilled trades backlog by 14% since 2024, down to 282,000 work orders. In 2025, NYCHA created 2.5 million repair work orders and closed or canceled about 2.49 million.
Greene says Maintenance Cares lets workers escalate high-need apartments directly to him and has resolved 1,164 apartments since February 2025. He says the FY2027 budget includes $20 million for the Critical Repairs Initiative to let residents escalate severe non-mold repairs.
Greene says NYCHA has worked with the Mold Ombudsperson Call Center and independent analyst to prioritize mold and leak repairs. He says more than 69,500 mold inspections and related work orders closed by August 2026, and the Restore and Renew program aims to address 10,000 mold and leak work orders over two years.
Greene says NYCHA's average HUD INSPIRE score rose to 79.5 as of September 16, 2026, up from 32.5 in 2022 and 2023. He says 89% of developments passed inspections so far this year, up from 15% in 2022 and 2023.
Greene says NYCHA's Quality Assurance Unit improves performance and accountability for maintenance and repairs. He says the NYCHA website now publishes service outages, individual work orders, lead paint testing progress, and capital needs reports.
Heather Beck says investing in capital needs is key to reducing repairs and that PACT and the Trust generate billions in investment. She says comprehensive renovations and infrastructure upgrades will reduce building maintenance and repair needs.
Beck says PACT transitions day-to-day property management to private managers, but NYCHA oversees Section 8 administration, site visits, and compliance. She says NYCHA analyzes pest, mold, leak, elevator, and heat work orders monthly and reports that PAC work orders in those areas typically resolve within one day.
Beck says NYCHA launched an online PAC dashboard in 2023 showing quarterly maintenance, tenancy, and construction data. She acknowledges more work remains to reduce NYCHA's work order backlog and says NYCHA will keep collaborating with stakeholders.
Banks asks how many Section 9 units NYCHA had at the end of 2022, 2025, and today. Greene says NYCHA had 162,143 units in FY2022, 145,347 in 2026, and roughly the same today, with about 134,531 occupied.
Banks asks for open Section 9 work orders on June 30 from 2022 through 2026. Greene says he has 2024 through 2026 data: 583,101 in 2024, 596,469 in 2025, and 592,381 in 2026, and will follow up with earlier years.
Banks asks for total open work orders today in Section 9 and PAC and the cost to resolve them. Greene reports 606,583 Section 9 work orders, Beck reports 409 open PAC work orders in HUD pillar areas, and Greene says Section 8 has no work order records and cites the $78 billion physical needs assessment.
Banks asks whether Section 9 work order numbers have dropped as units move to PACT. Greene says the bigger change is that NYCHA now inspects every apartment yearly, generating more work orders than the previous 50% inspection rate.
Banks asks for average work order completion times in 2026 by priority level. Greene says emergency Section 9 work orders averaged 11.1 hours, well under the 24-hour target, while non-emergency work orders averaged 55.6 days across all trades.
Banks asks how many work orders have been open longer than six months, one year, and two years. Greene says 93,128 are older than six months and about 332,000 are older than one year, mostly paint work orders, but he lacks a two-year breakdown.
Banks asks for the breakdown of parent and child work orders. Greene says about 110,000 are parent work orders and 496,000 are child work orders, then lists open tickets by craft, including 83,000 carpenter and 150,000 painter work orders.
Banks notes skilled trade or vendor days-to-complete rose from 77 in FY2022 to 130 in FY2025. Greene says days-to-complete has come down this year, while the overall SLA metric includes aging open tickets such as paint and floor tile work.
Banks asks how many of the roughly 62,000 mold and leak work orders are older than a year and how many are child tickets waiting on skilled trades. Greene says 63,972 total, with 21,968 older than one year and about 58,000 tied to skilled trades.
Council Member Elsie Encarnación asks how NYCHA defines a neighborhood under work order reform. Greene says NYCHA has 28 neighborhoods organized by geography, each generally about 5,000 units, with property managers reporting to a neighborhood administrator.
Encarnación asks what NYCHA considers a basic maintenance request. Greene says about seven of ten repairs are completed by maintenance workers, including leaks, window issues, and stoppages, and that annual inspections also include simple repairs and safety checks.
Encarnación asks how many skilled-trade vacancies NYCHA has. Greene says there are 44 vacancies among 1,750 skilled trades, with plasters the hardest to hire, prompting a plaster academy, and about 30 maintenance vacancies.
Encarnación asks who performs NYCHA's yearly apartment inspections. Greene says NYCHA maintenance staff do most, with a vendor used in the first years, and HUD INSPIRE inspectors provide outside annual review that can be skipped for high scores.
Encarnación says she doubts the high inspection pass rates given dilapidated apartments and the volume of work orders her staff handles. Greene says he is not declaring mission accomplished, visits developments daily, and points to Maintenance Cares and the Critical Repairs Initiative.
Encarnación says it should not be residents' or council staff's job to constantly follow up on NYCHA work orders. Greene responds that he understands and thanks her.
Banks asks how Maximo specifies response times and maintenance follow-up for emergency and non-emergency work orders. Greene describes nine priority levels, from one-hour priority nine super hazards to routine priority three work orders, and says superintendents monitor Maximo daily.
Banks asks how supervisory inspections of work orders are logged in Maximo. Greene says they use IN inspection tickets and that completion of skilled-trade supervisory inspections has risen from the low 40s-50s to high 70s-80s percent.
Banks asks how notices to residents are logged in Maximo. Greene says Maximo has a communication log, notices are auto-printed or emailed before skilled-trade appointments, and calls to residents are logged through the linked Siebel system.
Banks asks how NYCHA uses Maximo data to assess nonconformance, vendor issues, performance indicators, and asset needs. Greene says staff review Maximo daily, vendor data management needs improvement, and Maximo is used for lead abatement and building line leak prioritization.
Banks asks what controls NYCHA added after DOI found falsified safety checks following the Butler House fire. Greene says Maximo now has photo requirements, labor logs, quality assurance, compliance, and environmental health teams, and lead abatement closures require uploaded reports and verification.
Banks asks how many employees NYCHA disciplined or terminated for falsifying work orders since 2020 and how many referrals were made to DOI or the Inspector General. Greene says he does not have that data broken down and that some information would come from DOI.
Banks asks whether PAC partners must report suspected work order falsification to NYCHA or DOI. Heather Beck says PAC partners report monthly on HUD pillar work orders, but NYCHA does not collect or receive reports on falsification.
Banks asks about Operation Mold Cleanup and tickets closed by contacting residents. Greene says a separate verification program reached 11,000 residents and closed about 3,000 tickets under an independent analyst, while Operation Mold Cleanup addressed about 35,829 tickets, with 678,752 mold and leak work orders closed since 2022.
Banks asks whether NYCHA publishes work order closures without repair separately and who outside NYCHA checks closed tickets. Greene says he is unsure if that data is published but NYCHA shared 7.5 million work order transactions with the Council, and outside checks include the monitor, DOI, compliance teams, and independent analysts.
Banks asks how many 311 complaints NYCHA received under Local Law 127 in FY2025 and what happens when a PAC tenant calls 311 about a water leak. Greene says NYCHA does not track routed 311 calls, while Beck says an inspector reviews conditions and violations require PAC partners to open work orders.
Banks asks whether HPD inspects NYCHA tenant 311 water leaks and how tenants get HPD inspections. Greene says HPD refers NYCHA cases to NYCHA, HPD inspects court cases, and a new state law now gives NYCHA daily HPD inspection data that creates work orders.
Banks asks for FY2022-2025 data on housing court cases, HPD violations, and corrected violations. Greene provides partial September 2025-present data: 551 HP cases, 5,312 violations, and about 31% closed, and says he was not involved in the lawsuit that led to transparency.
Banks asks whether NYCHA would allow HPD to inspect closed tickets quarterly and why NYCHA should be the only landlord that inspects itself. Greene says NYCHA is willing to discuss outside inspections and cites HUD, the Federal Monitor, and independent mold analysts, and says he will take back the idea of inspecting 311 complaints.
Banks asks what NYCHA considers a manageable number of open work orders. Greene says he cannot give a number, notes NYCHA receives about 2.5 million work orders per year, and says the agency is meeting annual demand.
Banks asks how many developments operate under work order reform and how repair times compare. Greene says all properties use the neighborhood planner model, with 28 planners and 28 neighborhoods, and that missed trade appointments have dropped to 2.7%.
Banks asks about normal wait times for trade repairs and what an ideal time would be. Greene says the current average scheduling window is about seven months, while three to four months would be more ideal, though prioritization and overtime are used for urgent repairs.
Banks says residents are not experiencing NYCHA's reported responsiveness, citing Dickey and Estrada's cases, and asks if the system is broken. Greene respectfully disagrees, says NYCHA completes much work and sometimes early, and points to the Critical Repairs Initiative for missing cabinets and temporary sinks.
Banks asks what "pushing faster" means under the Critical Repairs Initiative. Greene says CRI includes overtime funding, materials costs, and prioritization of items like missing cabinets, holes in walls, and temporary sinks.
Banks asks whether hiring 565 workers today could reduce the backlog to 200,000 within a year, noting a similar 2013-2014 reduction. Greene calls it theoretical, says NYCHA is focused on doing and verifying work rather than closing tickets to lower numbers, and cites the MLR program.
Banks asks what headcount by trade would maintain the backlog and what it would cost to reduce it to 200,000 over five years. Greene says 1,700 skilled trades currently maintain the backlog and will follow up, while noting work orders require physical work and resident relocation for asbestos.
Banks asks how converting 30,000 Section 9 units to PAC has affected overall work order performance. Beck says PAC data is collected differently and is not directly comparable, but PACT has brought $10 billion in investment across over 32,000 apartments.
Banks asks why NYCHA publishes only one year of Section 9 work order data rather than data from 2019 onward. Greene says he will check the policy and notes NYCHA shared about 7.5 million work order records with the Council.
Banks asks about NYCHA's oversight of PAC work orders and whether PAC partners follow HUD or Baez standards. Beck says PAC reporting exceeds federal requirements, uses monthly reporting, HQS inspections, compliance monitoring, and independent mold and data analysts.
Banks notes PAC on-time work order resolution fell to 74.5% in 2025 from higher rates in prior years and asks whether managers are struggling. Beck says the PAC portfolio has grown rapidly and managers are handling capital repairs simultaneously; she also says NYCHA remains responsible until the conversion date during a 12-to-18-month pre-development period.
Banks asks whether NYCHA tracks PAC work orders open longer than 100 days and how OCC response compares. Beck says 65 PAC work orders were open more than 100 days through August, and OCC intake from PAC properties is very low, with only 39 tickets in the last quarter.
Banks asks how recent Critical Repairs Initiative investments have improved work order responses. Greene says NYCHA received funding about two months ago and is still building the program with stakeholders, so it has not launched or had an impact yet.
Banks asks how many elevators have been repaired with FY2027 funding for elevator doors and parts. Keith Grossman says NYCHA has not received the funding yet, so zero elevators have been repaired through that round, though the upgrade takes about half a day to a day.
Banks asks how many mold and leak complaints have been outstanding more than 100 days. Greene says about 12,500 mold tickets and 30,000 leak tickets are pending over 100 days, and the blitz has already addressed 3,000 work orders while targeting developments with trades on site.
Banks asks how relocating NYCHA staff after PAC conversions affects work order completion times. Greene says staff are moved into existing vacancies, keeping headcount the same, and that filling those vacancies should improve maintenance response times.
Banks asks whether NYCHA plans to hire additional staff to address the outstanding work order backlog. Greene says NYCHA hired 47 trades through the MLR program, added lead abatement staff, and is targeting mold and leak work orders through specific programs.
Banks opens the hearing to public testimony and reminds attendees that quorum must be observed and the public must remain silent. He explains that speakers have two minutes, must fill out appearance cards, and can submit written testimony for the record.
Denise Davis says she has lived at Penn-Wortman Houses for more than 20 years and has experienced many leaks under the PAC program. She says she lost her subsidy after trying to get answers for over a year, is now in court, and faces chronic elevator outages and repeated electrical failures.
Ms. Eves says the PACT/RAD process has divided tenants and exhausted her, and that complaining to agencies leads to retaliation. She says she has been labeled a chronic complainer, is being evicted, and believes PAC/RAD is designed to remove residents from Section 9 protections.
Sophia Fenn says she is a legal fellow at New York Legal Assistance Group's Public Housing Justice Project representing NYCHA tenants with repair issues. She describes tickets mysteriously closed, unproductive inspections, out-of-order repairs, no-show closures, and repeated relocations for asbestos and lead remediation.
Amelia Walden says she is from Penn-Wortman Houses and her quality of life has suffered mentally and physically. She describes being taken to court over repairs, a bathroom vent not working for two years, a falsified HPD repair record, recurring mold, and renovation reducing her apartment space.
Banks calls additional in-person witnesses who do not respond and then moves the hearing to remote testimony. He explains that staff will unmute Zoom speakers and the Sergeant of Arms will signal when they may begin.
Cynthia Tibbs says she is TA president of the West 97th Street Brownstones, part of a large PAC bundle on the Upper West Side. She says NYCHA real estate told resident leaders they must sign a nondisclosure agreement to participate in decision-making and that elected officials would be barred from future meetings.
Banks asks if anyone else on Zoom or in person wishes to testify and addresses Carla Hollingsworth, who already testified on the pre-panel. He says her pre-panel testimony stands and she may submit written documentation for the record.
Ms. Hines says she is an elder and Brooklyn resident who believes government has failed residents' education, homes, and businesses. She says public housing is full of mold, asbestos, and lead, and that NYCHA's interiors are unhealthy and making children sick.
Banks asks if anyone else has not been called, sees no additional speakers, and closes the hearing. He thanks administration officials and members of the public and adjourns.