Public Employee Press

Part 1 in a series
Mismanagement at the New York City Housing Authority
Housing Hell
Post-Sandy mobile boilers leave tenants at waterfront housing projects in the cold and will cost taxpayers $120 million by 2016.

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

At night, Parent Coordinator Tamika Hardwick bundles her four-month-old twins Thaddeus and Tatum in layers of blankets. She awakens to bitter cold - her cloud of icy breath evidence that the temporary boilers the Housing Authority has parked outside her Surfside Gardens apartment have failed again.

Since Hurricane Sandy struck in October 2012, the New York City Housing Authority has paid more than $56 million for fuel, generators and boilers to heat Surfside, a project one block from Coney Island Beach, and 15 other public housing developments in Coney Island, Red Hook, Far Rockaway and lower Manhattan.

When temperatures outside dip below 40 degrees, inside the Hardwicks' second-floor apartment it is frigid, with no heat or hot water - the family's almost daily misery this winter.

"Why would they use boilers that don't operate in cold weather? How do they expect us to live, go to work and school?" asked the Local 372 member.

Tamika Hardwick is not alone. Some 80,000 New Yorkers in public housing affected by Superstorm Sandy are waiting - sometimes in biting cold - for NYCHA.

Temporary boilers wrapped in Tyvek construction insulation sit parked in a lot under Hardwick's windows. When they work, the noisy boilers rumble and smoke, spewing exhaust fumes that seep into the apartment and the children's bedroom. Hardwick said, "It smells really gross. Then the apartment gets extremely hot."

At a recent community meeting that Hardwick attended at Coney Island's Carey Houses, NYCHA executives apologized but said they have no quick or easy fix planned. Instead, NYCHA will continue to use the unreliable temporary boilers until 2016, costing taxpayers about $120 million, and NYCHA estimates it will cost $1.8 billion to install new, elevated boilers.

After Sandy, NYCHA scrambled for insurance payouts and federal aid for ruined elevators, plumbing, and electrical and heating systems. But residents see little change.

Sandy's ravages only compound the endless backlog of undone repairs at NYCHA, which has been starved of almost a billion dollars in federal aid since George W. Bush was president 15 years ago. And then the Bloomberg administration at City Hall siphoned off huge payments for public services like police and sanitation from NYCHA's dwindling resources.

Since Sandy, the Hardwicks find reminders of that night of devastation everywhere. NYCHA said their rust-pocked kitchen window frame is not a priority and won't be repaired until at least July. Floor tiles and the apartment's front door are buckled. Its exterior walls are blistered with mold. In February NYCHA scraped and spackled but never painted. Flooding left the lobby and hallway pipes corroded and walls water-damaged and moldy.

Hardwick took her concerns to Housing Court. Like a slumlord, NYCHA was a no-show.

She worries about the health of her four children, who have developed allergies. According to a recent study by a coalition of housing advocates (see left) 56 percent of NYCHA residents say the mold has affected their health.

Harwick served eight years in the U.S. Army. She is bright, resourceful, resilient. On extremely cold nights her husband, Tyrone, shuttles the infants and their 4-year-old sister and 8-year-old brother to grandparents in Canarsie.

"We shower at night not knowing if we'll have hot water in the morning. I boil water and sometimes use space heaters," she said, knowing the devices could be fire hazards.

Tenants are bringing a lawsuit against NYCHA. "They meet March 27. I'll be there," Hardwick said. "I don't believe NYCHA is prepared for the next big storm."