Over 4,000 Neighbors at Ingersoll Houses Have Been without Heat All Day

FORT GREENE — The 4,046 neighbors who live at the 21-building Ingersoll Houses complex have been without heat and hot water since 10 am today. NYCHA, the city’s worst landlord, has failed to provide heat and hot water three times at the Ingersoll Houses in just the past eight days.

Despite the National Weather Service New York tweet of a Special Weather Statement stating that frostbite can occur within minutes of being outside, NYCHA has released no statement on what they plan to do to bring the heat to the complex. The website says that they are working to resolve the issue.

Lizza Marie, an employee at the Ingersoll Community Center, said in a phone call with Bklyner that NYCHA employees had stopped by the center earlier in the day, but as of 6:30pm had not provided the staff with updates on the repair process.

“I mean, it’s freezing outside,” Marie said. “And it feels the same inside as it does outside.”

To “prepare for extreme cold temperatures,” NYCHA has activated the Virtual Emergency Operations Center to “allow for a more focused and coordinated response of resources to address potential service disruptions,” said NYCHA in an email obtained by Bklyner. The center launched at 8:00 am today, and will continue through Saturday.

The “preparation” NYCHA has taken includes no reassurance that they are working hard to turn heat back on, and no resources to help Ingersoll tenants stay warm.

Instead, it provides “situational awareness,” “safety messaging,” “pre-identifying warming centers in each borough for potential activation,” and the cancellation of planned outages. NYCHA’s “preparation” lacks any concrete plan on how to make sure that low-income residents do not freeze as temperatures are expected to hit single digit lows tonight.