Enough of cold shoulder, NYCHA!
Fed-up council pol calls for agency probe
A city lawmaker says the Housing Authority is cooking the books on heat complaints and he is calling for a City Council oversight hearing into the alleged deception.
“I’m deeply concerned about NYCHA’s widespread closure of heat-complaint tickets that have not been solved, leaving residents without necessary heat during the coldest time of year,” Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Queens) told The Post. “These actions to improve their response-time numbers are inexcusable and irresponsible.”
The Housing Authority claims the average heat outage is being resolved and complaint closed in just five hours.
Mayor de Blasio even bragged Friday on WNYC that “in many cases” heat is restored at developments in “only hours.”
But many tenants were left in the cold for days as aging boilers continued to fail.
Dozens at the Redfern Houses in Richards’ own Rockaways district told him they submitted complaints in the last 10 days and were sent e-mailed confirmations that their heat was back even while they still shivered in frigid apartments.
“This whole entire project submitted complaints about the heat and nothing’s been done,” said Redfern resident Ebony Taylor, 30, noting that her family’s apartment hasn’t had heat since Dec. 26, endangering her 9-month-old daughter and 5-year-old niece. “NY- CHA’s gonna lie just to cover their ass,” Taylor said.
Shameika Chappell, 43, a Redfern tenant and NYCHA housing assistant who submitted nine heat and hot water complaints between Dec. 28 and Friday morning, is also frustrated.
“I thought I was crazy,” she said. “The heat never really came back on the whole time.”
Chappell got e-mails several hours after each complaint with the subject line “Heat/Hot Water Service is Restored.” One e-mail was sent midday Jan. 3 — even though NYCHA told reporters the heat at Redfern was actually shut down by frozen pipes that day.
“I’m not sure what they’re doing or who’s deeming the complaints closed,” Chappell said.
Comptroller Scott Stringer called the “outrageous” closed heat complaints “creative accounting.” Public Advocate Letitia James also questioned how the city closed the tickets.
Mayor de Blasio, meanwhile, was oblivious.
“I have not heard of tickets being resolved without something being done,” he said when asked about it Friday. Earlier on WNYC, de Blasio boasted, “As the problems have been occurring, we’ve been getting the heat back on in each development.”
NYCHA spokeswoman Jasmine Blake advised tenants to keep filing heat complaints even if they’re prematurely closed.
“It is critically important that residents still experiencing issues file a new work order as soon as possible,” Blake said.