Tenants in a city-funded homeless shelter fear they won’t survive the summer because the building’s managers forbid them from using air conditioners — even though they have two units cooling their own office.
The summer has just begun, and so far one woman at the Harlem SRO had to be taken to the hospital after passing out, one was robbed after leaving her door open for relief, and another has called paramedics a dozen times for heat exhaustion.
Since the tenement, which is on the corner of Broadway and 142nd Street, takes referrals from the city Human Resources Administration and Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the city pays the building’s owner approximately $ 56 per night per resident.
With about 100 down-on-their-luck New Yorkers living there, the total yearly cost to taxpayers is a whopping $ 2 million.
“I have to ride the subway to get cool,” said Frederick Jones, who suffers from asthma and has lived in the shelter since October 2012.
“When it gets over 90 outside, it’s 120 in the building. You’ve got people on oxygen machines, people with HIV, people on medication. It’s ridiculous.”
Leslie Miller claims the heat at the shelter has caused her health problems.Photo: Angel Chevrestt
Jones doesn’t know who owns the squalid tenement, but public records list the owner as 601-142 Realty LLC. That company is tied to Allen Wartski, a chronic tax deadbeat who in 2010 owed more than $ 25,000 in back taxes, according to public records. In 2010 alone, he owed New York State more than $ 25,000 in back taxes — a debt he took nearly a year to pay off. Wartski did not return calls, and a building manager refused to speak to The Post last week.
A spokesman for HPD blamed the landlord for not allowing AC, while an HRA spokesman said it is contemplating a push to force some SROs to require it.
“HRA places a very small percentage of our clients in Single Room Occupancy buildings,” said agency spokesman David Neustadt. “There are no federal, state or local laws that require air conditioning at SROs. However, as part of Commissioner [Steven] Banks’ review of all prior HRA policies and procedures, we are considering a change in this long-standing practice.”
The city should allow the current situation to persist a day longer, homeless advocates said.
“That building is not medically appropriate for people with HIV,” said Sean Barry, executive director of the advocacy group Vocal New York. “The city should move these people out into more appropriate housing.”
On one balmy morning last week, with temperatures outside hovering around 80 degrees, the mercury inside reached 93 by 10:30 a.m.
Wheelchair-ridden Magdeline Vaughan, 53, who suffers from emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is one of the worst hit residents. She’s been to the ER at least 12 times in the past two months.
“I can’t breathe,” she said. “It’s murder in here, and it’s going to get worse. I have no choice to call for an ambulance to take me to the hospital.”
When she and other residents offer to buy their own air conditioners, the managers tell them the building’s wiring will short out.
“That can’t be true,” said one resident who suffers from HIV. “They’re nice and cool in their office with their air conditioning, and we’re burning up in here.”
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