The New York City Council Committee on Public Housing, chaired by Councilmember Chris Banks, held an oversight hearing on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, to examine work order systems used by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and its Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program. The hearing focused on the backlog of open work orders, response times, transparency, and discrepancies between Section 9 (traditional NYCHA) and PACT developments. Councilmembers Banks, Encarnación, Marte, Ossé, and Won were present; Mealy and Restler were absent. Councilmember Nurse also attended.
Good afternoon. And welcome to today's new city council hearing from the Committee on Public Housing. At this point, I'd like to remind everyone to please Sunset Electronic Devices and at no point is anyone to approach the dais. If you would like to sign up for in-person testimony and haven't filled out a slip, please feel free to fill out one outside at the table in the hallway. Chair, we're ready to begin. I'm calling this meeting to order. Good afternoon, everyone. Um and welcome to this hearing on the committee of public housing for New York City Council. I'm Councilmember Chris Banks, uh Chair of the Committee, and I'm glad to be joined by my colleagues, uh, Councilmember Morte and Councilmember S. Scarcion. Um today we will hold an oversight hearing on the work orders systems used in NYCHA and uh PAC developments, which uh residents use to request repairs and notify property managers of conditions in their homes. NYCHA has uh two separate systems the SIBO tracks and the residence complaint and the maximal tracks uh that uh the tracks the work order. Uh NITRA uses work order data to schedule repairs, direct resources, and measure compliance with the 2019 HUD agreement. Uh number of the open work orders has risen and fallen across Mario administrations, but in the past, the city has committed one-time money uh to bringing uh the backlog down each time before it it rises again. Uh the work order system is the main way uh for residents to report that something is in their household needs repair, but residents and the public have limited ability to see how the system performs. Uh NITRA's work or the system only serves developments that NITRE manages. However, each pack property manager uses its own system. So residents have uh complained that their open work orders disappear from uh the NYCHA system and that the history of the issue does not carry over to PAC. Uh NYCHA's work order system serves only developments that NYCHA manages. When a development transfer transitions to PAC, uh it its work orders leaves NITRE system and are then tracked by private management. It is unclear what happens to uh to the open work orders at that point and whether NITRE keeps track or communicates with the PAC partners of their progress. And NYCHA's public data uh on work orders only goes back one year. So the public cannot track trends. You know, residents of both NITRE and PAC developments have reported that work orders take too long to address. They wait for repairs without knowing when a work or worker will come, and they tell us that no uh one updates them on the status of their requests. You know, PAC residents uh tell us they are unsure uh where to call or where the property manager when the property manager does not respond. We need today's uh hearing to shed light on a process that has frustrated and confused residents who are trying to live in dignity. A work order system that is managed properly can improve the well-being of residents within days. So this hearing is our chance to hold NITRE accountable while also uh learning how PAC partners handle repairs. We're asking uh NYCHA and PAC partners for more transparency moving forward. As more PAC transitions occur, uh residents need a commitment uh to timely and complete work orders, regardless of who manages the building. I would like to uh first of all thank my staff, Michael Lambert, Kyle Graham, along with the public housing committee staff, Jose Conde, Simeon Shell, Charles Kim, Spencer Trun, and James Wu and Noah Schlossberg uh for all the work uh they've put into this hearing. Uh next, we will now uh welcome as we have done traditionally in my committee since I've become chair of this committee. We will now uh call up the pre-panel, uh pre-panelists. So please uh approach. We have uh Jeremy Estrada Perez Keith Ramsey and Methine Scarcy. And we've also been joined by Councilmember. And we also have Carla Hollingsworth as well, and we have uh Patricia Dickey who's on Zoom. We will begin with uh Mr. Methane Scoss. Thank you. Good to see you. Likewise, thank you. You have three minutes. All right. Good afternoon, Chair Banks, uh members of the public housing committee. My name is Mateen Sarcy, and I serve as the co-chair of the Housing Land Use and Zoning Committee for Manhattan Community Board 9. I'm also an employee of the New York City Housing Authority. However, I'm testifying today in my personal capacity, and the views expressed in this statement are my own and do not reflect any official policy or position. Um I think one of the unique things about my experience having come from city council is you know being able to problem solve issues.