Astoria Houses Lost Hot Water 39 Times At End Of 2019: Data

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Residents of Astoria Houses lost hot water dozens of times during the first few months of this heating season, according to data obtained by the Legal Aid Society.

There were 39 hot water outages affecting the Astoria Houses between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2019, affecting nearly 3,000 residents each time, the data shows.

That ranks the Astoria Houses as the public housing complex with the most hot water outages during that timeframe, according to the Legal Aid Society's analysis of NYCHA data.

"NYCHA is clearly still unable to ensure that utility systems seamlessly provide for residents, and these numbers confirm what we hear from our clients on a regular basis,” said Lucy Newman, staff attorney with the civil law reform unit at The Legal Aid Society.

Rochel Leah Goldblatt, a NYCHA spokesperson, said only four of the hot water outages were unplanned. The rest were planned, she added, so workers could perform preventative maintenance on the building's heating systems to prepare them for colder weather.

"We find it important to be transparent and accurate in our data," Goldblatt said in an emailed statement. "The interpretation of our data shared by Legal Aid is incorrect or intentionally misleading."

Residents of the Astoria Houses experienced seven unplanned hot water outages and five planned hot water outages during the same three months of 2018, according to NYCHA.

It takes NYCHA about seven hours to fix an unplanned hot water outage and nine hours to restore hot water after a planned outage.

"We’re using all the tools at our disposal to address the deteriorating conditions and aging infrastructure in our heating plants," Goldblatt said.

NYCHA residents across the city experienced 1,246 heat, hot water and water outages during the last three months of the year, according to the data. More than 200,000 residents were affected.