Tenants in Clinton Hill endure sporadic heat since holiday
Monday, December 6th 2010, 4:00 A
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2010/12/06/2010-12-06_their_cold_thanksgiving_tenants_endure_sporadic_heat_since_holiday.html#ixzz17OMU8BtGMore than 800 residents in a Clinton Hill public housing complex have been without heat since Thanksgiving.
The New York City Housing Authority's heating system is on the fritz at the Lafayette Gardens Houses, where heat went out the day before Thanksgiving and was briefly restored for only a day.
"On Thanksgiving, we had no heat or hot water," said Tyree Stanback, 51, president of the tenants' association at Lafayette. "It keeps coming on and going off."
Stanback said nearly 200 residents complained to him about their cold apartments over four days last week.
He said he's been calling NYCHA officials at the Centralized Call System and Emergency Services Department offices in Long Island City, Queens, but none of their fixes seem to stick.
"It's been sporadic," Stanback said.
Lafayette is one of 184 city housing projects that use a heating system that is controlled by a NYCHA office in Long Island City, officials said.
The heat level increases in Lafayette Gardens apartments depending on the temperature outside - but Stanback said there are many problems coordinating the four boilers in the complex with the computerized monitoring system in Queens.
"The system is nice on paper, but in reality it's not good," he said.
"Each development has its own inherent problems ... and someone sitting at a switchboard can't see the details of your development."
NYCHA officials said last week plumbers were fixing a broken valve in the hot water tank at Lafayette Gardens.
Officials also said extra staff was assigned to the Long Island City plant to keep tabs on temperatures at the Brooklyn complex.
But resident Deborah Henry said whatever solution NYCHA implements needs to happen fast: Her pregnant daughter is ready to deliver twins any day now, and she can't bring the babies home to her frigid Classon Ave. apartment.
"My pipes are the same temperature they've been since Thanksgiving - ice cold," said Henry, 52, who lives in a four-bedroom apartment on the 18th floor.
"I'm using comforters, blankets, sheets and I'm using my stove," Henry said.
"I take a pan, fill it up with water and put my oven on so that it makes some mist, and we definitely can't bring those babies here with that."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2010/12/06/2010-12-06_their_cold_thanksgiving_tenants_endure_sporadic_heat_since_holiday.html#ixzz17OME6lDW
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