Banks asks about Operation Mold Cleanup; Greene explains 35,829 tickets closed and stricter closure rules

In 2022, NITRA launched what we call the Operation Mold Cleanup to close out mold and leak tickets left from the COVID period.

By contacting residents by email and phone, how many tickets were closed that way?

So, uh,

Not just by, that's not Operation MOLC.

Thank you, Chair, for that question.

That's not the full definition of Operation MOLC cleanup.

So we do have a program verification program that we do with our independent data analyst, which is a court-appointed analyst by a federal court.

So in that program, which is a different program, we've reached out to 11,000 residents, and they verified approximately a third of the work is no longer needed.

And so those, I think it's roughly around 3,000, those tickets were closed with the oversight of that independent data analyst, which is, again, reports to the federal court.

Another approximately 7,000, 8,000 were still required, work was still needed, and so those would be scheduled.

Operation Mold Cleanup was an effort that we looked at backlog cleaning tickets and tub enclosure tickets that we needed to address that were aging and were contributing to significantly poor conditions in units.

So through that effort, which continues today, we addressed over 30.

about 35,829 tickets through Operation Mold Cleanup, which is a program to expedite and prioritize certain mold work.

Overall, since 2022, we've closed out 678,752 mold and leak work orders.

So the monitor's first report in 2019 found tickets closed with the repair being made and closure rules changed after that.

Is today's open work order count a true picture of the conditions that then the count in 2019?

No, I don't think that's an excellent question, Chair.

I think things have dramatically changed since 2019.

The closure rules, especially around leak and mold, are some of the strictest closure rules, if not the strictest at NYCHA.

They cannot be closed unless we physically get into the apartment and verify the work.

That was why that 11,000 pilot program that we did with our.

Independent data analyst was so important because it was overseen carefully and was trying to look at some of these older tickets.

Because sometimes folks get frustrated when we show up to verify and have to get into the apartments to verify like a paint ticket.

A significant portion of the open mold only tickets are for painting.

And we want to, you know, we have to get in there and verify them.

So the rules have dramatically changed, which makes it harder to bring the backlog down because to actually get in, we have to get, you know, to actually close the work.

We have to get in there and verify it, which is a good thing, too.

Definitely not complaining.

Definitely something that keeps us aggressively trying to work and get into folks'apartments to see if the work is needed.