For the past two months, Mr. Sotomayor has been overseeing a special program meant to speed up repairs and reduce the maintenance backlog at the Manhattanville Houses. The vast majority of open work orders at Nycha apartments require skilled trades workers like painters, plasterers, plumbers, carpenters and electricians. The financially challenged agency, however, has struggled to hire enough of these workers, leading to interminable wait times for basic repairs. The goal is to close 50,000 work orders within two years using $20 million the city allocated earlier this year. “It’s hard to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks,” Mr. Sotomayor said.

Source: New York Times July 27, 2018 01:02 UTC