ADAMS PUTS THE HEAT ON NYCHA
Queens complex slammed over no hot water
Mayor Adams and other politicians slammed the New York City Housing Authority on Monday following a Daily News scoop revealing a monthslong hot water outage affecting hundreds of tenants in a Queens building.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards called for four months of free rent for tenants at the 174-unit building in Arverne, some of whom have gone without hot water at the Rockaways complex since November. Adams called the ordeal at Carleton Manor “despicable.”
“There’s a culture of incompetence that has permeated NYCHA. And I think it has a lot to do that people are not respecting the rights of those residents,” Adams said at a press conference. “When I saw that story that was in the paper, that is unacceptable.
“I’m going to do my darndest to make sure it doesn’t happen,” he added.
The mayor’s response came one day after The News highlighted the frigid conditions at Carleton Manor, where as many as 300 tenants have lacked hot water since November.
The monthslong outage incensed a Queens Housing Court judge who dressed down a NYCHA lawyer on Jan. 20.
“If this was a private small landlord he [the landlord] would be in jail by now,” Judge Kimon Thermos said during the hearing. “He would have been in jail by now, and the fines would have been $500 per day, per apartment. So he would have been in jail and he would have been losing his building, too.”
“Why is your crime shielded this way?” Thermos asked a NYCHA lawyer at the hearing. “NYCHA is dropping the ball big-time here.”
As a city agency, NYCHA is not subject to the same types of penalties as private landlords.
Adams said he has a policy proposal, called NYCHAstat, that would track issues for residents such as inadequate hot water, facilitating faster fixes as problems arise.
Tenants at the building on Beach Channel Drive and Beach 74th St. in Arverne provided documentation to The News showing they’d complained about the water in petitions and lawsuits since at least December.
Residents said the shoddy plumbing forces them to heat water on a stove, haul it to the tub and then use it to bathe.
Richards took Adams’ comments a step further, calling for NYCHA to waive rent for any months without hot water.
“It’s the city’s fault for acting like a slumlord who thinks they can get away with dehumanizing our residents here in Carleton Manor Houses,” said Richards, who was joined by other elected officials.
But NYCHA countered that rent relief would only exacerbate the problem.
“This problem stems from decades of neglect due to disinvestment, therefore any diminution in funds will only lead to further deterioration of buildings and services,” said Rochel Goldblatt, a NYCHA spokeswoman.
The Housing Authority said all apartments in the building had hot water as of Monday. Work will continue on the plumbing system this week.
But tenants worried the warmer water won’t be around for long. “Since Thursday, I’ve had hot water. When I got in the water, I got excited. And when it stayed that way, I was even more excited,” said tenant Alisha Robinson, 42. “I’m scared when I turn on the water, like, is it gonna be hot or is it gonna be cold?”