drawn renewed scrutiny<\/a> as heating failures mount across both private buildings and public housing.<\/p>\nMamdani has also been called before the City Council to account for the city\u2019s emergency response during the cold snap, with lawmakers questioning whether his approach has been sufficient to protect New Yorkers as heat complaints reached record levels.<\/p>\n
HEAT REQUIRED BY LAW \u2014 BUT NOT ALWAYS DELIVERED<\/p>\n
Under city law, landlords are required to maintain indoor temperatures of at least 68 degrees during the day and 62 degrees overnight between Oct. 1 and May 31. But in buildings with financial distress or absentee ownership, tenants say those legal standards can quickly become hollow promises.<\/p>\n
In Astoria, Pavez said the problems are most severe overnight, when the heat frequently shuts off during the coldest hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll turn the heat on sporadically during the day, but then it shuts off at night,\u201d she said. \u201cThe last several nights, it\u2019s gone off around midnight and doesn\u2019t come back until morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicole Pavez with her pup at her Astoria apartment. Kim Max for NY Post<\/p>\n
She said she has relied on layers, blankets, and space heaters to get through the cold, despite concerns about safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I turn the space heater on even though it stresses me out,\u201d Pavez said. \u201cYou\u2019re constantly weighing staying warm against the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her dog\u2019s health has added urgency to the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got pneumonia one winter,\u201d she said. \u201cDuring this freeze, I\u2019ve been putting sweaters on him inside the apartment because it just gets too cold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pavez says management in her building refuse to turn on the heat at night when temperatures are below freezing. Kim Max for NY Post<\/p>\n
Pavez said she has repeatedly contacted building management and filed 311 complaints but believes enforcement gaps make it difficult to hold landlords accountable, especially when outages happen overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe unfortunate thing with HPD is that they\u2019re not available to do checks in the middle of the night,\u201d she said. \u201cThat makes it really hard to catch landlords when they turn the heat off.\u201d<\/p>\n
City officials insist enforcement is active. A Housing Preservation and Development source told The Post that since Jan. 22, approximately 12,000 original heat complaints have been closed, many through inspections or tenant confirmation that heat had been restored. That figure represents only a fraction of the nearly 80,000 complaints logged in January alone.<\/p>\n
The Queens building at 32-52 33rd St. Kim Max for NY Post<\/p>\n
Despite the ongoing issues, Pavez said moving is not financially feasible.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven with rent increases, it\u2019s still cheaper than most places nearby,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s close to the subway, it\u2019s convenient, and moving is expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018A NIGHTMARE SCENARIO\u2019 <\/p>\n
As heating problems have mounted over several years, some tenants have banded together to withhold rent and pursue legal action, saying conditions reached a breaking point during the most recent cold snap.<\/p>\n
In Williamsburg, at 491 Keap St., Hughes said the deterioration accelerated as building staff disappeared and essential services stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cEssentially, the building was being abandoned,\u201d Hughes told The Post. \u201cThere would be no heat for like 15 days one year. No trash pickup. No cleaning. Nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A small emergency boiler at the Brooklyn building, insufficient for the whole building, is seen posted outside. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
The situation became especially dire during a prolonged outage last winter, when freezing temperatures coincided with a complete lack of basic services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was when it was like ten degrees outside. Just a complete nightmare scenario,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Like other tenants interviewed, Hughes said soaring rents in the neighborhood leave residents trapped.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy rent is $3,600, but equal apartments are $5,500, $6,000, $6,500,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t afford to move.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karlyn Murphy, 31, another tenant in the same building, said residents began realizing the scope of the problem in 2023, when utility shutoff notices appeared and basic services faltered.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started having problems with heat and hot water in early 2023,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n
She said tenants later discovered the building\u2019s owner had failed to pay essential bills.<\/p>\n
Murphy has been boiling pots of hot water to shower and wash her face with. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThe highest notice we got was around $350,000 in unpaid electricity bills,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cAnd we were like, \u2018We\u2019re paying rent every month. What are you doing with our money?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Murphy said conditions worsened when management and staff disappeared entirely.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe building was officially abandoned by the owner, the Chetrit Group, and Plaza Management,\u201d she said. \u201cTrash piled up to the ceiling. Packages were everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without hot water during the current freeze, Murphy said she resorted to makeshift solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was boiling water just to soak my feet after being outside in the cold,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s when it really hit how bad things had gotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
PUBLIC HOUSING UNDER THE MICROSCOPE<\/p>\n
Public housing residents say they are facing similar failures. NYCHA, which manages one of the nation\u2019s largest public housing systems, has long struggled with aging infrastructure and a massive maintenance backlog, issues that have come into sharper focus during the cold snap.<\/p>\n
Juanita Arnold, 61, a Lehman Houses resident since 2008, said she went three months without heat, from October through December, a first in her 15 years at NYCHA.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it got cold in October, no heat at all,\u201d Arnold said. \u201cOctober, November, and then December they got it together.\u201d She said repeated calls for help led nowhere. \u201cI was told you can\u2019t call 311<\/a> anymore so they won\u2019t get a fine. You just keep putting in tickets.\u201d<\/p>\nJuanita Arnold, age 61, said if it wasn\u2019t for menopause, she does not know how she would have made it three months without heat. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n
Arnold said she avoided using her stove for warmth and credited her age for getting through it. \u201cMy menopause saved me,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for that, I probably would\u2019ve froze in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
She urged City Hall to act sooner. \u201cWe\u2019re paying our rent. We need to live in a better environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Weaver and other housing advocates have previously argued for strengthening public control over housing, critics point to persistent heating failures in NYCHA developments as evidence that the city can\u2019t even effectively manage existing public housing.<\/p>\n
Court records show that during the 2017\u201318 winter, more than 80 percent of NYCHA residents experienced heat or hot water outages, a level of disruption that sparked lawsuits and federal oversight. More recent analyses have found thousands of unplanned service interruptions, with some apartments colder inside than outside during extreme weather.<\/p>\n
Geraldine Williams, age 65, a resident at Lehman Houses since 2009. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n
Geraldine Williams, 65, who has lived at Lehman Houses since 2009, said her apartment went without heat for about a week during the recent freeze, with service restored only in the past few days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have heat for about a week,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI put water in the pot for warmness.\u201d <\/p>\n
She said NYCHA told her they were \u201cworking on it,\u201d but tenants received no compensation. \u201cMy rent is never late,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd nope, nothing\u201d when asked about reimbursement.<\/p>\n
NYCHA officials told The Post they operate a 24\/7 heat desk and emergency response system and have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on heating infrastructure upgrades in recent years. But for residents enduring days without heat in the depths of winter, those assurances often feel abstract.<\/p>\n
NYCHA faces an estimated $78 billion repair backlog, underscoring the scale of the challenge confronting City Hall as it pledges to prioritize tenants while temperatures remain unforgiving.<\/p>\n
In a statement to The Post, Matt Rauschenbach, Deputy Press Secretary of Housing at City Hall defended their response. <\/p>\n
\u201cThrough the Mayor\u2019s Office to Protect Tenants, this administration is taking a long hard look at the Housing Maintenance Code and how it\u2019s enforced,\u201d Rauschenbach said. <\/p>\n
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