Mayor Zohran Mamdani appeared at the Beach 41st Street Houses last week. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

For the first time since his campaign, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani returned to the Rockaway peninsula last week, appearing alongside city leaders and other local elected officials at the Beach 41st Street Houses to announce a multi-million dollar investment in structural upgrades for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) property.

Located in Edgemere, the Beach 41st Street Houses are due to receive heat pumps as a part of the city’s “Clean Heat for All” initiative. The $38.4 million investment aims to provide more consistent and reliable heating, as well as efficient cooling in bedrooms and living rooms, individual temperature controls for residents, and improved hot water reliability to a total of 712 homes in the complex.

“[The] $38.4 million investment in heat pumps at the Beach 41st NYCHA Houses is about dignity, safety, and climate justice,” Mamdani said in a statement. “It means hundreds of working-class New Yorkers in the Rockaways can heat their homes reliably while we cut emissions at the same time,” he added. “This is what it looks like when we understand that the fight for a livable planet and livable housing are in fact one and the same.”

Mamdani made the official announcement during a press conference on Wednesday, Feb. 4 – about 16 days into New York City’s cold stretch of below-freezing temperatures. According to city officials, the weather-related death toll has climbed to 18 over the last 25 days.

The plans to install heating pumps for the Beach 41st Street Houses come on the heels of a steam system leak at the NYCHA property, a struggle for residents that Mamdani attributed to “outdated infrastructure.” According to Leila Bozorg, the deputy mayor for housing and planning, the work to fix the leak will start immediately, while the installation of the heat pumps will start “soon” and take place over the course of two years.

While work on the Beach 41st Street Houses remains underway, the city’s “Clean Heat for All” has already seen success at other NYCHA locations. According to city records, pilot apartments with heat pumps show 89% of residents “reporting satisfaction,” and results averaged across two heat pump manufacturers show both an 86% decrease in energy required for space heating and a 50% decrease in heating energy costs.

Following the announcement, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. thanked Mamdani for the investment while also recalling the environmental struggles of Rockaway residents within recent memory, such as Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

“[It] really is a good day to ensure that our historically most marginalized communities, who often feel overlooked and disinvested in, can see that their city is saying, ‘No, you deserve to be invested in,’” Richards said. “The Rockaway peninsula has been one of those communities,” he added while noting its large concentration of public housing. “This $38 million investment is going to ensure that the quality of life of residents here gets much better.”

Richards’ remarks were echoed by NYC Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers, who represents Edgemere in Council District 31.

“For too long, too many NYCHA residents in Far Rockaway have lived with aging systems that don’t meet the basic needs,” Brooks-Powers said. “This investment will improve quality of life, lower energy costs, and bring reliable heating and cooling to hundreds of households. I thank Mayor Mamdani and our city partners for prioritizing NYCHA residents and making meaningful investments that strengthen our communities and help move us toward a cleaner, more resilient future.”