Sophia Fenn describes broken NYCHA repair system from legal aid perspective

Greetings, Chair Banks and members of the New York City Committee on Public Housing.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding my experiences with NYCHA's work order practices.

For the past two years, I have worked as a legal fellow at New York Legal Assistance Group on the Public Housing Justice Project, where I work exclusively with NYCHA tenants who are dealing with repair issues in their apartment.

I have litigated these cases in every housing court in New York City across all five boroughs, including Red Hook Community Justice Center.

My experience in this work echoes what many tenants have told you today.

The NYCHA work order and repair system is broken.

Tenants put in tickets only for those tickets to be mysteriously closed, or if a worker does respond, the visit is not productive.

Workers show up five, six, many times to inspect, wherein they just take a picture and leave, only for tenants to be told that no one can find those pictures, and that another date has to be scheduled for more pictures to be taken.

All the while, they are living with leaks, pest infestations, destroyed floor tiles, and other conditions that are dangerous to health and safety.

When NYCHA does begin repairs, poor project management results in repairs not being completed or being unnecessarily dragged out, placing a significant emotional and physical burden on our clients, and frankly on NYCHA.

NYCHA schedules work out of order.

Painters coming before plaster, plaster coming before plumbing.

NYCHA workers come at random times with no warning, even if a scheduled appointment exists.

And if the tenants do not happen to be home, NYCHA will permanently close the ticket as a no-show, restarting the entire process.

Other times, clients with significant environmental concerns, such as asbestos and lead, find themselves having to relocate multiple times for remediation because NYCHA is unable to coordinate the two remediations to ensure they happen consecutively.

I have an elderly client who was relocated for asbestos, had her possessions lost and furniture broken, only to be moved back home and told she also required a lead abatement and would have to be relocated again.

She lived out of boxes for months while waiting for the second relocation to be scheduled.

Both relocations were incredibly taxing and negatively impacted her health.

Poor systems like these waste the already limited resources of NYCHA maintenance, costing both tenants and NYCHA unnecessarily.

Increased transparency is also needed regarding NYCHA's inspections and repair records.

During HP actions, NYCHA can rarely produce details or documentation regarding inspections they conducted or even repair work.

They claim to have made.

An internal record of repair work should be consistently available to tenants so tenants can understand what is going on and avoid the constant runaround from management regarding the repairs in their home.

We urge the city and NYCHA to take this opportunity to create policies and practices that model how to maintain and provide housing that is humane and habitable for New Yorkers.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Thank you to the panel.

Oh, hold on.

We got one more.

Do apologize.

Thank you, Ms.

Walden.