New York City is bracing for a record number of heat complaints as the city struggles to keep up with frigid temperatures. The city's housing agency, Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), received nearly 80,000 reports of lack of heat and hot water in just one month, shattering previous records.
For many residents, including Angelette Waring, who lives in a mixed-use building on Webster Avenue in the Bronx, this is not an isolated incident. The building's residential and commercial tenants have been dealing with inconsistent heat and hot water issues for months, compounded by gas outages. "It just feels like, at this point, harassment," Waring said, as she and other residents call for the building management to fix the problems.
The city's Housing Preservation and Development agency has increased staffing to manage the surge in complaints, with over 12,000 related issues closed in the past two weeks alone. However, officials caution that not all complaints become violations, and that a "whole-of-government" approach is needed to address the crisis.
While NYCHA's Amsterdam Addition development on the Upper West Side has been hit particularly hard, with nearly 6,000 residents having their heat restored after outages in just one day, some landlords are struggling to keep up. Michael Johnson, spokesperson for the New York Apartment Association, notes that turning the heat back on quickly requires coordination between multiple agencies and professionals.
As the city prepares for its coldest temperatures yet this year, officials are urging residents to look out for their neighbors, particularly those living outdoors who are most vulnerable to hypothermia-related deaths. The National Weather Service has forecasted temperatures as low as 6 degrees in Central Park overnight Saturday, with wind chills expected to reach negative 15 degrees.
With a backlog of $80 billion in capital improvements needed to fix the city's aging infrastructure, officials are calling for increased investment and coordination among agencies to address the crisis. As one resident noted, "Even though lows will be in the single digits Saturday night, the feels-like temperatures, the wind chills, will be around negative 10 to negative 15 degrees." The stress of it all is palpable, with many residents expressing frustration and anxiety about their heating woes.
NYCHA's President Patricia Ryan estimated that her apartment was at around 40 degrees, with crews working tirelessly to restore heat and hot water at Amsterdam Addition. Despite progress being made in heat service reliability and outage response, the road to recovery will likely be long and arduous for many residents.
For many residents, including Angelette Waring, who lives in a mixed-use building on Webster Avenue in the Bronx, this is not an isolated incident. The building's residential and commercial tenants have been dealing with inconsistent heat and hot water issues for months, compounded by gas outages. "It just feels like, at this point, harassment," Waring said, as she and other residents call for the building management to fix the problems.
The city's Housing Preservation and Development agency has increased staffing to manage the surge in complaints, with over 12,000 related issues closed in the past two weeks alone. However, officials caution that not all complaints become violations, and that a "whole-of-government" approach is needed to address the crisis.
While NYCHA's Amsterdam Addition development on the Upper West Side has been hit particularly hard, with nearly 6,000 residents having their heat restored after outages in just one day, some landlords are struggling to keep up. Michael Johnson, spokesperson for the New York Apartment Association, notes that turning the heat back on quickly requires coordination between multiple agencies and professionals.
As the city prepares for its coldest temperatures yet this year, officials are urging residents to look out for their neighbors, particularly those living outdoors who are most vulnerable to hypothermia-related deaths. The National Weather Service has forecasted temperatures as low as 6 degrees in Central Park overnight Saturday, with wind chills expected to reach negative 15 degrees.
With a backlog of $80 billion in capital improvements needed to fix the city's aging infrastructure, officials are calling for increased investment and coordination among agencies to address the crisis. As one resident noted, "Even though lows will be in the single digits Saturday night, the feels-like temperatures, the wind chills, will be around negative 10 to negative 15 degrees." The stress of it all is palpable, with many residents expressing frustration and anxiety about their heating woes.
NYCHA's President Patricia Ryan estimated that her apartment was at around 40 degrees, with crews working tirelessly to restore heat and hot water at Amsterdam Addition. Despite progress being made in heat service reliability and outage response, the road to recovery will likely be long and arduous for many residents.
the heat complaints are insane in nyc i feel so bad for ppl living in buildings with no heat or hot water it's like a total nightmare 
those landlords gotta step up their game ASAP 
and btw 40 degrees is COLD 
hope everyone gets their heat back on soon! 
I'm literally shaking thinking about all those ppl struggling with no heat & hot water 
It's like, basic human rights, right? Can't our city do better than this? 
We're talking record-breaking complaints here, but it feels like the system is just kinda...broken 
Like, what even is going on? NYCHA's got 6k ppl warmed up in ONE DAY?! Meanwhile, others are still shivering in the cold 
I mean, come on, NYC, we know you can do better 
. but honestly, with temps forecasted to be like -15 degrees wind chill, I'm not sure how much help increased investment will be if there's just not enough money to go around 
. $80 billion needed for capital improvements? that's crazy talk 
. i feel bad for ppl like Angelette who's been dealing with this crap for months. the city needs to step up its game and allocate more funds ASAP 
. meanwhile, all these ppl are gonna be freezing their butts off 
.
I mean, I know the city is struggling with infrastructure issues, but c'mon, how hard is it to keep heat on when it's freezing outside?! 
The 80k+ complaints is a whole lot of people shivering in their boots...or lack thereof 
.
. It's not like it's a minor issue either, some of these places have been without heat for months already.
.
.
Like, I get that but come on! This is unacceptable 
. It's not rocket science, folks! 
, 80k heat complaints is insane! 
. And what's up with all these reported issues being closed, but not actually resolved? 
. Hypothermia-related deaths are no joke 
? I hope the city steps up its game & shows some serious love for its residents 
.
. We just had good ol' fashioned apartments with heat that worked most days 
. And if it broke, you fixed it yourself or waited till the landlord came to do it 
. Stay warm out there, everyone! 
. I'm hoping they can get some coordination going between agencies soon so these problems don't snowball into something bigger