Boiling mad at NYCHA
With heat out, tenants use ovens & hot water
The heating complaint hotline is the only thing getting warm at NYCHA these days.
Residents at a Brooklyn public housing complex complained that their apartments felt like iceboxes Monday, just days after tenants at several nearby NYCHA buildings said they also weren’t getting any heat.
Rent payers at the Cooper Park Houses in East Williamsburg said they were without heat or hot water for much of the weekend and on Monday, when the day started with temperatures in the low 20s.
“I’m wearing extra stuff,” said angry tenant Gloria Vinals, 62. “Sometimes I have to put my stove or oven on. It’s crazy. They’ve been fixing the boilers for the longest time. I don’t even believe it anymore. I have to heat water to put it in the bath to take a birdbath. That’s what I’m getting ready to do now because I have to go out. It’s crazy.”
Vinals said she’s boiling mad.
“Still no hot water,” Vinais said. “The heat comes every once in a blue moon. Right now the hot water hasn’t been on for a couple of days. The heat hasn’t been there for about a week. They give it to you and then they take it away. It’s freezing in here. I know my neighbors have been complaining.”
Outside her apartment, and throughout the Cooper Park Houses along Kingsland Ave., emergency notices were posted about plans to interrupt hot and cold water service Wednesday because of “unavoidable circumstances.”
”Yesterday they had the heat off. It was so cold,” said Cooper tenant Theodora Gibbs, 33, who lives with her five kids in an apartment that feels like an ice skating rink.
“The heater won’t come on. Nothing is broken in my apartment. They’re just being stupid. They’ve been trying to fix the boiler downstairs for about a month now. It’s been like this since the winter season began. That’s NYCHA for you.”
She said the issue is taking a toll on her family.
“My son has a fever of 102,” Gibbs said. “He has a cough. My oldest son is asthmatic, I’m asthmatic. This morning my brother was like, ‘Why is it so cold in here?’ My youngest daughter is all right for now. I keep her wrapped up in blankets.”
The boiler problems drew heat from an elected official who urged NYCHA to get its act together.
“The New York City Housing Authority must remedy the heat and hot water outages in Cooper Park Houses, located within my district, as expeditiously as possible,” said Councilman Antonio Reynoso. “As per city code, all heat and hot water violations must be remedied within 24 hours, and I expect NYCHA to abide by these standards.”
A NYCHA spokesman said two of the four boilers experienced issues that cause steam pressure fluctuations, and that repairs had been made to stabilize the system.