Hundreds of public housing tenants in the Bronx shivered through a frigid weekend, as heating systems in several NYCHA buildings failed when low-20s temperatures gripped the city.
The breakdowns affected hundreds of apartments at the 1,182-unit Throggs Neck Houses, the 992-unit Mott Haven Houses and a 96-unit building at 1471 Watson Ave. Some tenants told the Daily News they got nowhere in their efforts to get the problem fixed.
Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News
Annie Jenkins, 70, in the lobby of 2745 Schley Ave. describes having no heat over the cold weekend. She is among the residents of Throggs Neck Houses in the Bronx where heating systems failed.
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NYCHA confirmed that other developments also suffered heat outages, though officials refused to provide specifics. “We’ve had a number of outages at buildings,” NYCHA spokeswoman Sheila Stainback said. “That tends to happen when there’s a cold snap.”
Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News
Residents of Throggs Neck Houses in the Bronx complain that they had no heat over the weekend. The heat was back on by noon Monday.
But Throggs Neck Houses tenant president Monique Johnson said the development has had problems with its gas lines for months. “People should not have to put up with this,” Johnson said.
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Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News
Lilian Pedroza in her apartment at 2745 Schley Ave. is among the residents of Throggs Neck Houses in the Bronx who had to suffer through a frigid weekend with no heating. The heat was back on by noon Monday.
Robert Hamlett, 60, and his wife, who live at Throggs Neck, were forced to bundle their 4-month-old grandson in numerous layers and a blanket to keep him warm when the mercury plummeted on Friday night, and the heat failed. “It’s just awful at night,” Hamlett said.
His wife, Cynthia, 54, said the heat went out on Friday and didn’t return until mid-Monday. All weekend she called NYCHA and got no response. “It’s ridiculous,” she said. “It’s just cold. It’s the first time I’ve had to go the entire weekend without (heat). It was better to be outside than in here.”
Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News
Temperatures plunged inside a unit at the Throggs Neck Houses in the Bronx, where Cynthia Hamlett lives with her baby grandson.
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Annie Jenkins, 70, a Throggs Neck resident who has multiple sclerosis, said she got the bureaucratic runaround when she sought help. She said a NYCHA worker told her that she saw her repair ticket was received, but added that “there’s nothing in the system about the actual problem.”
“Each time I call, they say there’s nothing in the system. If there’s nothing wrong, then why is the heat off?” Jenkins added.
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A few miles away, in the South Bronx, eight buildings in the Mott Haven Houses endured a heatless day and night on Sunday — the coldest part of the weekend, when the high temperature was 20 degrees — and tenants in one building also experienced a sewage backup. “It was very nasty,” tenant Sade Wood, 24, said of the sewage issue. “You can get sick like that.”
As of late Monday, with another near-freezing night settling over the city, warming shelters were offered to families frozen out of the NYCHA building at 1471 Watson Ave. in the Bronx.Housing Authority officials said Monday the sewage leak at Mott Haven was plugged late Sunday and the heat was back on there by Monday. No information was provided about repair efforts at Throggs Neck.
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