Crown Heights, PLG Residents Log 40K Heat Complaints

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Crown Heights and Prospect Lefferts Gardens tenants have reported tens of thousands of heat and hot water outages in recent years, but they saw far fewer violation issued by the city, a new study from Comptroller Brad Lander's office shows.

The two central Brooklyn neighborhoods logged more than 41,000 heat complaints between 2017 and 2021 but the number of violations stands at a little more than 1,500, according to the report.

Lander's office released this analysis the first anniversary of the fatal Twin Parks fire — where 17 residents died after a space heater sparked a blaze — to showcase the danger of letting heating outages go unfixed, the Comptroller said.

“The city must turn up the heat on landlords who leave their tenants in the cold,” said Lander.

"More strategic, data-informed enforcement and escalating penalties against landlords who repeatedly fail to provide heat are necessary to ensure safe and warm apartments for all New York City tenants.”

Residents in Community Board 8 — which covers Crown and Prospect Heights — made more than 16,000 heat complaint while Community Board 9 — Prospect Lefferts Gardens and a swath of Flatbush — made more than 24,000 complaints, the data show.

Complaints in these two regions may be in the tens of thousands, but building violations issued by the city can counted in hundreds: specifically 905 in Community Board 8 and 610 in Community Board 8.

"Such a low conversion rate of complaints to violations suggest that the enforcement regime is not working effectively," the Comptroller's report states.

City law mandates landlords provide heat between October 1 and May 31. Specifically, buildings must be at least 68 degrees during the day when the outdoor temperature is below 55 degrees and at least 62 degrees at night, regardless of the outdoor temperature.

These regulations are enforced by the Housing, Preservation and Development department, which can issue fines, litigations or even emergency repairs for troubled buildings.

If problems persist, or if fines go unpaid, the city can place a lien against the building that could possibly result in the building going into foreclosure.

The city can also use the 7A program, where an administrator would take over a building's operation, collect rents and initiate major repairs, like to the property's boiler system.

But Lander's office found that in more than a quarter of buildings with more than five heat complaints filed annually (about 1,000 properties citywide) the city failed to perform any enforcement action.

Yet the report notes heat complaints drop when the city decides to take action on landlords skimping on building maintenance.

“The good news here is that our enforcement tools work: when HPD issues violations, sues landlords, does emergency repairs, or installs heat sensors – problems get fixed," Lander said.

"But far too often, none of those actions take place even in buildings that are cold year, after-year, after-year."

Lander's office also reports a disturbing citywide trend: the neighborhoods with the highest volume of complaints also have a majority of Black and brown residents.

"Heat complaints and violations are not equally distributed across the city but concentrated in the Northwest and South Bronx, Central Brooklyn and, Northern Manhattan – all neighborhoods in which most residents are people of color," the report states.

"In a cruel irony, this lack of basic building maintenance is occurring as buildings in these communities are sold for increasingly high prices."