Official: NYCHA needs better work-tracking system

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Life got better Tuesday for the residents of the Farragut Houses in Brooklyn. They have been without heat since last week's snowstorm. The New York City Housing Authority said that heat has been restored. But the Brooklyn borough president said NYCHA needs to update its methods.

This cold spell, the worst in decades, has been a challenge for the more than 3,400 people who call the Farragut Houses home. Many lost heat but got it back within a day.

NYCHA said crews resolved more than 15,000 heat-related work orders citywide.

"Heat has been restored. Staff are working around the clock to respond to outages as quickly as possible," NYCHA said in a statement. "We must do better to provide our residents the safe, warm homes they deserve."

Borough President Eric Adams said his staff has been fielding calls and complaints from NYCHA residents which don't always match up with the statistics the authority makes public about heat outages.

As Fox 5 took a tour around the development, Adams said that simple technology could help NYCHA keep better track of who needs help.

Adams said that because of the aging infrastructure and underfunding, NYCHA needs to be more proactive and put in place a real-time agency-wide tracking system like those used by the NYPD and the Sanitation Department.