Progress seen on NYCHA repairs in East Brooklyn
Mary Smith had one problem, and then she had several. The heating in her living room at the Fiorentino Plaza Houses in East New York conked out about three years ago. Then her hot water went. She began hauling pots of hot water from the stove to her bathroom to bathe. But then she injured her neck and back in a fall, making the water-bearing impossible.
Smith’s distress is distinct but the underlying story is common among residents of the New York City Housing Authority, the nation’s oldest and largest public housing agency, which struggles amid funding reductions to maintain an empire of 330-odd developments—many with aging buildings and infrastructure—that house a population of at least 400,000.
Many of NYCHA’s problems stem from its fiscal fragility. But management issues also play a role. As common as are the complaints about repair requests getting ignored are the reports of maintenance workers arriving but doing a slap-dash job: painting over mold rather than eradicating it, patching up plaster instead of clamping off the source of a leak.