NYC To Spend $200M On NYCHA Heating Fixes After Tenants Freeze

NEW YORK, NY — New York City will spend $200 million over three years to fix heating systems at 20 public-housing complexes after recent heat breakdowns that left tenants freezing, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday.

The upgrades, scheduled to be finished in 2022, will touch New York City Housing Authority complexes in all five boroughs housing about 45,000 people. They include more than 39 new boilers at 10 developments in Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx that have faced "chronic" heating outages, city officials said.

NYCHA has struggled to keep its aging boilers running amid deep cold snaps this winter. The Jan. 4 "bomb cyclone" snow storm knocked out heat and hot water for thousands of tenants. De Blasio pledged $13 million to hire additional staff to help get heat systems working when they break down.

"While the city faced one of the coldest spells in over a half century, NYCHA staff worked around the clock to keep its aging boilers running," NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye said in a statement. "This new investment will help us improve service to our residents and provide them with the safe, warm homes they deserve."

At 12 complexes, NYCHA will upgrade hot water systems to separate the job of heating water from boilers that heat apartments. That will decrease the chances that residents will lose both heat and hot water if there's a breakdown and make it easier to repair boilers in the summer without cutting hot water, city officials said.

Fifteen developments will get new heating controls allowing staff to more closely monitor boilers and reduce the strain on them when possible, officials said.

The funding pledge from de Blasio continues what the Democratic mayor has touted as record city investment in the beleaguered housing authority despite disinvestment from the state and federal governments.

The city has committed $2.1 billion to NYCHA's capital needs from the 2014 fiscal year through 2027, de Blasio's office said. NYCHA also pledged $103 million in federally funded heating fixes in the wake of the early January snow storm.

The City Council's Public Housing and Oversight and Investigations committees will hold a hearing next week about the continued problems with NYCHA's heat and hot water systems. Council Speaker Corey Johnson said he hopes to get answers there about whether the new upgrades will actually be a salve for NYCHA's heating problems.

"Tenants at these apartments that have been identified don’t have four winters to wait to fix boilers," Johnson, a Democrat, said at a City Hall news conference Wednesday.

(Lead image: Mayor Bill de Blasio tours a boiler facility at NYCHA's Woodside Houses complexes in Queens as a snow storm slams the city on Jan. 4. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)