Over the last two months, BMHA residents and advocates have used social media to show the conditions of their apartments out of frustration for not getting timely repairs done.

Residents have also brought concerns to the Buffalo Common Council on several occasions, leading Council President Darius Pridgen to make an unprecedented move of asking the city inspector to look at several BMHA apartments last month.

"At the end of the day, people deserve to live in decent conditions, and so BMHA must respond to the residents in that area," Pridgen said.

At a council committee meeting Tuesday, Pridgen said he received the inspector's report, and will release it to the public once the residents' names and other private information is redacted.

He noted that the needed repairs have now been made, and the residents have signed off on them.

BMHA Executive Director Gillian Brown attended Tuesday's meeting at the council's request.

"The staff and I are working quite hard to make some changes that I think we all agree are necessary at the housing authority,” Brown said. “There is a lot of work to be done."

Brown says those changes include several new hires.

The BMHA now has three superintendents of maintenance who will supervise nine assistant superintendents.

Brown also just hired an asset manager to oversee the six managers who supervise the 4,000+ apartments in Buffalo.

He says a chief financial officer will also be hired by the end of the year.

Finally, the BMHA is adding a second staff member who is fluent in Spanish to take phone calls on resident issues.

Brown asks people to call 716-836-4954 to report any maintenance problems.

"I understand that many people gave up on our work order number system, and I appreciate why they gave up, but I'm here to say it is working better now and it will continue to be improved," Brown said.

Pridgen suggested that Brown also make staff members more accessible in an effort to improve relations with residents.

In response, Brown said that either he or the asset manager will try to attend every other tenant meeting going forward.

Brown also acknowledged that HUD is conducting another audit on the BMHA after it released a 26-page report criticizing the agency's procurement practices in September.

Brown says the new audit will focus on five years of operations at Commodore Perry.