New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer released a four-part agenda to overhaul the city's housing authority, following
The audit, coordinated by deputy comptroller for audit Marjorie Landa, said the New York City Housing Authority missed its goals of eliminating its entire work-order backlog and reducing repair wait times. NYCHA reported a backlog of 420,000 work orders in January 2013.
Stringer's agenda consists of four main elements, which encompass 27 recommendations overall.
NYCHAStat, a new management system modeled after the police department's CompStat, would provide a real-time, development-by-development breakdown of key maintenance statistics. In addition, individual apartment complaint logs would be categorized and published by development level.
To enhance transparency, the authority should submit quarterly budgetary reports, create and update a four-year financial plan with annual financial statements, and comply with all generally accepted accounting principles and cash accounting standards. In addition, NYCHA should reveal capital needs, projects and budgets regularly, and disclose the source of funding for capital projects.
NYCHA, said Stringer, should also update and disclose its physical needs assessment, a comprehensive overview of major infrastructure needs NYCHA has concealed for years, and tie that document to its capital projects report.
According to Stringer, the housing authority should dedicate surplus Battery Park City Authority funds, which amount to roughly $400 million over 10 years, to supporting capital improvements at NYCHA, including technology and infrastructure upgrades.
"Many of the issues raised in the audit are or will be addressed through the implementation of NextGeneration NYCHA," agency general manager Michael Kelly wrote Landa, referring to NYCHA's 10-year strategic plan. "We believe strategies outlined and aligned with NextGen will not simply fix what is broken, but will proactively improve and enhance the experience of living in the city's public housing."
