New app helps New York City public housing residents with repairs

For NYCHA residents with peeling paint, clogged drains, running toilets or worse, help is just a click away.

New York City Housing Authority Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye announced the launch of the MyNYCHA app on Monday outside the Mitchel Houses in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx.

“One of the best things about the MyNYCHA app is that residents can use it any time of day, wherever they are. It’s fast, it’s easy and there’s no waiting to speak to someone,” Olatoye said.

Olatoye said the app is part of NextGen NYCHA, the10-year strategic plan for affordable housing. The app, which is available for both iPhone and Android devices, is expected to be available in Spanish and accessible on the web by the end of the year.

The app, which has already been downloaded by 2,000 residents, provides anotherway for residents to request and schedule maintenance work. The Customer Contact Center was previously the only way for residents to report repairs, and the center received about 7,000 calls a day.

A NYCHA spokeswoman told Metro that about half of the 1,000 work orders submitted through the app have been completed, and that the housing authority is not giving preferential treatment to app users.

Frank Allen, a resident of Throggs Neck Houses, was walking by the NYCHA mobile van when he stopped for help getting the app on his phone.

“I had some work done, they had some old tickets [on the app] that should have been closed out,” said Allen, who has lived in NYCHA housing for the past 24 years. “Repairs have been slow [in the past], but NYCHA’s working on it. It’s getting better.”

Astoria Houses resident Inam Ghauri said he used the app to solve a problem with his apartment’s door. He submitted his problem on the app, and workers repaired it the next day.