Baby, it’s cold outside — and inside — for NYCHA residents.
Like clockwork, the first big freeze of the season meant no heat at several city housing complexes, with residents from at least one complaining that the heat was still not on after the agency tweeted that repairs were done.
NYCHA tweeted at about 9:30 p.m. Friday that heat was restored at the Farragut Houses in Downtown Brooklyn, but that post was followed by several residents complaining that it wasn’t back on.
Saturday, with temperatures around 27 degrees in the morning and only 39 degrees in the afternoon, residents at one building, 233 Sands St., said the heat was still not on. There was a handwritten sign hanging in the lobby that advised those without heat to call the maintenance supervisor.
Isaiah Williams, 27, said his apartment at 233 Sands hasn’t had heat for three weeks and he’s been using his oven and two electric space heaters to warm up the apartment for his 3- and 5-year-old daughters. “They tell us not to turn on the oven for heat, but what can we do?” he asked. ‘They put the heat on in summertime, but when it’s cold, they turn it off. They got it backwards.”
Devon Brown, 55, said his kids have to wear hoodies and jackets when they sleep. “We still ain’t got heat,” he said. “I’m always using my stove, we put water in pots and boil them.”
Carmen Martinez, 72, who uses a walker because of arthritis, said, “It’s really cold. I’m in a lot of pain, it acts up when it’s cold.”
“We need some damn heat,” said an exasperated Daisy Hutcherson, 72, who uses a wheelchair. “This is crazy. I’m always wrapped in blankets, I can’t walk. It’s not right. I’m calling these people over and over to give me some heat.”
NYCHA spokeswoman Millie Molina said in an email that heat was restored at the complex, and did not respond when told residents were claiming otherwise.
NYCHA’s service interruptions website listed 10 buildings without heat Saturday afternoon, including individual buildings at the Bronx River Houses and Claremont Parkway-Franklin Avenue houses in the Bronx and all eight buildings at the Rangel Houses complex in East Harlem.
The same Friday night tweet that said Farragut’s heat was back on said at Rangel, “a mobile boiler is ready 2 support heat throughout the development.” Molina did not immediately reply to questions about why that boiler didn’t kick in overnight.
The more than 2,125 residents without heat at Rangel were fed up as NYCHA crews worked on the problem Saturday.
“My wife and I were freezing last night,” said Roman DeJesus, 61. “I don’t understand, they know the weather and they know what they have to repair and they just don’t.”
Raymond Carter, 40, said in disgust. “NYCHA, man, we go through this every year, nothing changes, I just bundle up. Who knows how long it’ll take to fix this time?”
Rangel and Farragut are among the 10 housing projects that were supposed to get new boilers, the city said in March. The work is supposed to start this year but won’t be done until 2022.
A resident from the Lexington Houses in East Harlem also tweeted at NYCHA complaining that there was no heat .
That agency was able to get the heat and hot water back on for about 5,000 residents of the Castle Hill Houses in the Bronx Friday. NYCHA blamed a broken water main in a boiler room for the outage there. Service was restored about 6:15 p.m., .
NYCHA got the OK from a federal watchdog to replace even more decrepit boilers at multiple developments on Thursday. The first wave of boiler replacements will target 37 troublesome plants that provide heat for nine developments by 2023.
The heating problems throughout the NYCHA system has led to lawsuits.