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Residents at Mitchel Houses in Mott Haven told the Bronx Times that they aren\u2019t able to cook, and at times don\u2019t have hot water following a partial collapse of one of the residential buildings due to a boiler explosion. Now U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres is calling on NYCHA to prioritize converting the complex to all-electric. <\/p>\n
Photo: Sadie Brown<\/p>\n
U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres is calling on New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to prioritize converting the gas heated Mitchel Houses in Mott Haven to all-electric following the Oct. 1 partial collapse of one of its buildings after a boiler explosion.<\/p>\n
In a letter addressed to Mayor Eric Adams and NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt, Torres called the conversion a matter of \u201cpublic safety\u201d noting that electric heating would be less likely to pose a fire hazard.<\/p>\n
\u201cElectrifying public housing means defusing the ticking time bomb of flammable fossil-fuel systems that threaten both life and property,\u201d Torres said in the letter.\n<\/p>\n
He said that it was only by \u201cfortune \u2014 not foresight\u201d that no one was injured or killed when the boiler explosion blew out an entire corner of a 20 story residential building, sending bricks raining down into the courtyard below.<\/p>\n
The collapse displaced dozens of residents<\/a>, although NYCHA has now cleared people to return to their units.<\/p>\n Even those residents who lived in buildings near the one that collapsed told the Bronx Times that they still can\u2019t use their stoves and haven\u2019t had hot water.\n<\/p>\n Isabel Santiago, who has lived in Mitchel Houses for 38 years in a building adjacent to the one that collapsed, said that she was given a hot plate and a slow cooker to use for cooking. But she said that the slow cooker is too heavy for her to lift on her own.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aI had to carry that thing from the kitchen to the bathroom to empty out all the liquid that was in it,\u201d Santiago said. \u201cNo more. I\u2019m not using it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n She said that even though she didn\u2019t live in the building that collapsed, she was still shouldering the burden of an increased cost in food from not being able to cook from scratch for her grandchildren who she babysits.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I can\u2019t cook for them, then I have to go out and get them something, and that\u2019s not good,\u201d Santiago said.\n<\/p>\n She told the Bronx Times that she worries the explosion, combined with persistent disruptions to the heat and hot water point to a bigger problem with the gas supply at Mitchel Houses.\n<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aThere has to be [a problem],\u201d Santiago said. \u2018Because why is it gonna take so long for the boiler? What does the boiler have to do with our stoves?\u201d\n<\/p>\n Santiago said that initially she didn\u2019t have a preference for cooking with gas or electricity, but after watching the building collapse, she would feel safer if the building went all-electric.\n<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aI thought something like a bomb had hit, and when I went to look out the window I saw the chimney come down,\u201d Santiago said. \u201cAnd then I knew it was bad.\u201d\n<\/p>\n The city is already making strides towards electrifying its buildings<\/a> under the 2019 Local Law 97, which mandates that the city\u2019s buildings reduce their greenhouse gas emissions beginning in 2024.<\/p>\n NYCHA buildings are not exempt from the law, but play under a different set of rules, according to a NYCHA report on the new emissions laws. Buildings within the public housing authority\u2019s portfolio are exempt from the financial penalties that private buildings incur if they fail to comply with the new laws.<\/p>\n NYCHA\u2019s emissions reductions are also measured across its entire portfolio of buildings, rather than by each building.\n<\/p>\n The housing authority is the largest landlord in the city, serving over 2,000 residential buildings, per the NYCHA report. Even if the agency were able to completely electrify 100 of its buildings every year, it would take decades to reach every building.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a dire situation that the agency itself recognized.\n<\/p>\n \u201cGiven these facts, it is essential that NYCHA move aggressively to address this issue and resist the temptation to wait for some future \u2018silver bullet\u2019 technology that may or may not materialize,\u201d NYCHA said in a section of the report<\/a> entitled \u201cTime is of the Essence.\u201d<\/p>\n Time is exactly what Torres pushed for in the letter \u2014 he called on NYCHA and City Hall to include Mitchel Houses in the agency\u2019s next round of electrification. The Bronx Times reached out to NYCHA about its method for determining which buildings have the most immediate priority for going all-electric, but has not yet received a response.<\/p>\n In the meantime, residents like Santiago and Sarah Robinson, who has lived in Mitchel Houses for eight years, have to make do with hot plates, heavy crock pots and intermittent heat and hot water outages.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe can\u2019t even take a good bath,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cYou just gotta wash yourself up and go about your business.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Robinson told the Bronx Times that she believes Mitchel Houses need to be a priority and that she would feel safer if the buildings used electric energy instead of gas.\n<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aIt might be a good thing \u2014 for one reason the gas exploded one time it might do it again,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cI think I\u2019d rather go with the electric.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Reach Sadie Brown at sbrown@schnepsmedia.com or (214) 994-6723. For more coverage, subscribe to our\u00a0newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>!<\/p>\n \t