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Queens lawmakers tour Woodside Houses after multiple
resident complaints of no heat, gas or hot water
BY JULIA MORO
Queens lawmakers gathered at
the New York City Housing Authority’s
(NYCHA) Woodside Houses
on Thursday, Jan. 27, to call on the
agency to restore the heating plant
that had been damaged as a result of
Hurricane Ida in September.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio
Cortez, Councilwoman Julie
Won, state Senator Jessica Ramos,
Deputy Queens Borough President
Ebony Young and others toured the
building after numerous complaints
of no heat or hot water during the
cold months.
New York City Housing Authority
(NYCHA) residents are awaiting
funding from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) and
the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) to repair
the damage.
In the meantime, residents have
been relying on mobile boiler units
that have reportedly not provided
adequate heat.
“NYCHA had months to prepare
in advance to repair the heating
plant at Woodside Houses. Heat outages
during the coldest months are
unacceptable — residents are left
with no choice but to use dangerous
space heaters or stovetops to
keep themselves warm,” Won said.
“NYCHA should release a long-term
solution instead of unreliable mobile
boilers. FEMA and HUD must
make funding the repair of the heating
plant a top priority for the health
and safety of everyone at Woodside
Houses immediately.”
The Woodside Houses consist of
20 buildings in the NYCHA complex
with nearly 2,900 residents.
Twenty hot water outages have been
reported since September, including
11 separate heating outages this
winter.
According to Public Advocate Jumaane
Williams, who also attended
the walk-through, NYCHA is “the
worst landlord in the city.”
“The heating and hot water outages
at Woodside Houses are at once
entirely unacceptable and entirely
predictable given NYCHA’s history
of mismanagement,” Williams
said. “The city has an obligation to
tenants in Woodside Houses and at
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Council member Julie Won and others toured the Woodside Houses after hearing numerous
complaints of no hot water or reliable heat since Hurricane Ida. Credit: Photo provided by Won’s offi ce
NYCHA complexes across the city to
provide safe, quality housing by immediately
TIMESLEDGER | Q 16 NS.COM | FEB. 4 - FEB. 10, 2022
making these repairs and
providing tenants with protections
against freezing temperatures until
the heat is back on.”
In a statement, Richards mentioned
that during the colder
months, it is unacceptable that residents
cannot rely on hot water and
heat.
“NYCHA has had almost five
months to fix this problem, so far
without success. It needs to step up
to the plate and complete its heating
plant repairs so that Woodside
Houses residents have the reliable
heat and hot water they deserve and
are entitled to,” Richards said.
Currently, six apartments in the
Woodside Houses have been without
cooking gas since Nov. 5. Last week,
a group of tenants gathered to protest
the extensive outages.
One tenant and the treasurer
of the Woodside Houses Tenants
Association, Tomasine Reyes, is living
in one of the apartments without
gas.
“It’s not fair,” Reyes said. “We pay
our rent. We do what we gotta do, but
we’re not getting the treatment we
deserve … in our apartments, in our
living grounds, in our whole development.
It needs to be cleaned up. It
needs to be repaired. It needs to be
done now.”
NYCHA responded to the criticism
saying the agency spent
over $1.4 million in repairs on the
Woodside Houses boiler since
Hurricane Ida.
“Tropical Storm Ida damaged
the main boiler at Woodside Houses
after it was submerged in over five
feet of water, causing a hot water
outage for tenants,” said a statement
provided by NYCHA. “NYCHA has
since installed two mobile boilers
and a third was delivered to the development
after the past two weekends,
where there were extreme cold
temperatures. The boilers are expected
to be brought online in February
and once they are online, the
mobile boilers will be taken offline
in stages.”
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