NYCHA Residents Without Heat in Brooklyn

by Stephanie Colombini | 01/09/2015 | 7:01pm

NYCHA Residents Without Heat in Brooklyn

Residents at a Brooklyn public housing development are doing anything they can to stay warm today without heat in their apartments.

Afua Atta-Mensah's Director of Litigation at the Urban Justice Center's Safety Net Project. She says a court ordered NYCHA to address deplorable conditions at the Hope Gardens houses in Bushwick after a group of tenants filed a lawsuit against the agency in November.  

"They're asking for simple things that we all, I think, would agree with: that sewage should not be backing up, that they should have heat in January, that pipes should work - basic human rights we shouldn't be dealing with in 2015 in New York City," she said.

Atta-Mensah says NYCHA has begun to make some repairs since the order came in December.  But she says residents are still anxiously waiting for heat as the icy weather continues.

"They have the little mini heaters in the apartment; and when they put that on, it makes the electricity go out," she said.  "We've been very clear about telling tenants, warning them, 'Do not turn your stove on or leave the oven on.  But we have residents who do things like boil pots of water all day long, to at least try and get the heat up in that way."

Atta-Mensah says she's concerned residents' alternative heating methods heat could lead to a tragedy if something goes wrong.  She says restoring heat's just one of many repairs NYCHA was given 60 days to complete.  

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