Feb 6, 2018 2 min read Gowanus

Adams Urges NYCHA To Get New Boilers

Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams rallied outside the Gowanus Houses Community Center in Gowanus with dozens of New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) tenants impacted by the citywide heating crisis, as he called on NYCHA to take actions to address challenges its underfunded capital program faces (Photo Credit: Erica Sherman/Brooklyn BP’s Office)

GOWANUS – Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is urging NYCHA put the millions of dollars the agency has saved in energy costs between 2013-2016 into repairing and replacing boilers and addressing the heating problems plaguing public housing developments across the city.

Adams was joined by NYCHA residents at a press conference at the Gowanus Houses on Monday in advance of today’s City Council oversight hearing on chronic heat and hot water failures in the public housing system. Adams called on NYCHA to spend the $48 million it has saved in fuel costs on emergency boiler repairs and conversions.

“We would not tolerate residents in private co-ops and luxury apartments going through what NYCHA residents are going through,” the Borough President said. “They are paying rent like every other tenant and they deserve the same protection.”

According to a recent Citizens Budget Commission study, NYCHA utility costs fell by $48 million from 2013 to 2016—thanks mainly to lower gas prices as heating systems in buildings were converted from oil to natural gas. To take advantage of these savings from energy efficiency programs and retrofits, Adams recommends that NYCHA reinvest the revenue towards more conversions and “related weatherization efforts.”

“We need to make sure our properties are weatherized, our windows are insulated, and our buildings are wrapped, so that when the heating system is fixed, we can keep the heat inside,” said Charlene Nimmons, Founder of the community-based organization Public Housing Communities and former President of the Wyckoff Gardens Tenant Association.

Last week, Adams and 50 elected officials sent a letter to NYCHA Chair, Shola Olatoye, requesting that she make an “emergency declaration” in order to expedite the repair process for the boilers.

Adams also proposed the creation of a NYCHA capital project online dashboard that would provide tenants with real-time information on the status of infrastructure and quality of life matters in their housing developments.

The Borough President noted that his office has been notified of at least 19 NYCHA developments dealing with heating issues in the past year—affecting approximately 40,000 Brooklyn residents.

These NYCHA locations include the Gowanus Houses; the Sumner Houses and Tompkins Houses in Bedf-Stuy; the Samuel J. Tilden Houses and Van Dyke Houses in Brownsville; the Bushwick Houses and Hope Gardens in Bushwick; the Glenwood Houses in Canarsie; the Coney Island Houses and Gravesend Houses in Coney Island; Rutland Towers in East Flatbush; Atlantic Terminal, Farragut Houses, and Ingersoll Houses in Fort Greene; the Reverend Randolph Brown Houses in Ocean Hill; the Red Hook Houses (East and West); and the Independence Towers and Taylor-Whyte Houses in Williamsburg.