Heating Improvements for NYCHA Residents in Advance of Winter

October 19, 2018October 22, 2019 LaToya

On October 18, Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYCHA Interim Chair Stanley Brezenoff, and General Manager Vito Mustaciuolo announced heating improvements made this summer and fall across NYCHA to prepare for cold weather.

“Every NYCHA resident deserves heat in the winter. Our new leadership at NYCHA have delivered major improvements that will reduce outages and get the heat back on faster,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “This plan will benefit all 400,000 New Yorkers who call NYCHA home, and is the only the beginning of more improvements to come.”

Last winter in New York City was one of the coldest on record, bringing NYCHA’s aging infrastructure to a brink. In response, NYCHA’s new leadership created a plan to reduce outages and restore heating faster this winter.

“In preparation for this winter season, we have been fully dedicated to ensuring real improvements to keep residents warmer,” said NYCHA Interim Chair and CEO Stanley Brezenoff. “While there is no magic wand, our operations team, under the leadership of our General Manager Vito Mustaciuolo, is tackling problems we have immediate control over while looking to the future when we can have more reliable heating throughout our portfolio for all New Yorkers who rely on us.”

NYCHA residents now have more heating staff, more mobile boilers on hand for emergencies, and better handling of their heat complaints. Developments that had chronic heating issues last year – home to 87,000 residents – received targeted improvements ranging from new boilers to new third-party experts that will manage heating plants to reduce outages.

“After joining NYCHA in the height of the heating problems last winter, I committed from day one to ensure that we were better prepared when this winter season came around,” said NYCHA General Manager Vito Mustaciuolo. “With unprecedented support from Mayor de Blasio, we have achieved operational improvements, streamlined capital timelines and better technology both internally and for resident communication, so when the winter freeze comes, we will be able to respond faster and get boilers up and running quicker.”

The citywide improvements for the 2018-19 heating season include:

More Heating Staff: NYCHA has added 50 new heating technicians this heating season, and added more contracts with skilled laborers to provided additional expertise if needed. These staffing expansions will improve maintenance and speed response times.
Better Customer Service: When NYCHA makes heating repairs, it will now robocall all affected residents before closing out work orders. Any resident that has not experienced heat restoration will be able to immediately respond through the call to keep staff on site to address their issue.
New Mobile Boilers: 5 additional mobile boilers are ready to deploy during emergencies to keep heat running.

The targeted improvements for the 87,000 residents in developments that had chronic heating issues include:

New Boilers: 12 developments have had boilers replaced since last winter with three more under repair now, improving heating service for 9,100 residents. Six developments, with 7,300 residents, have received dedicated mobile boilers.
Outside Experts to Monitor and Manage Boilers: For 41 scattered sites or high-tech heating plants, third-party agencies will provide faster and better fixes, helping 70,000 residents experience better heat this season. Further developments will be transferred to third-party managers over the course of the heating season.
Better Windows: 7,600 senior apartments received new window balances, a key issue in last year’s struggles to keep the cold out. These repaired windows will lock in the heat more securely for NYCHA’s elderly residents.

Below is a list of sites that are receiving targeted improvements:

New Boilers

104-14 Tapscott Street
Claremont Rehab (Group 2)
Claremont Rehab (Group 4)
Coney Island I (Site 1B)
Coney Island (Sites 4&5)
Fort Washington Avenue Rehab
Hope Gardens
Ingersoll
International Tower
Lower East Side I
Manhattanville Rehab (Group 2)
Manhattanville Rehab (Group 3) *
Melrose*
Ocean Hill-Brownsville
Rehab Program (Wise Rehab)
Robinson *
Rutland Towers*
Sutter Avenue-Union Street
Taft*
Washington Heights Rehab
Wyckoff Gardens*

Note: The locations with an asterisk are receiving a mobile boiler.

Third-Party Management

303 Vernon Avenue
Albany
Albany II
Astoria
Beach 41ST Street
Brownsville
Conlon Lihfe Towers
Cooper Park
Corsi Houses
East River
Elliot
Fiorentino Plaza
Glenmore Plaza
Highbridge Gardens
Howard
Hughes Apartments
International Tower
Jefferson
Kingsborough
Kingsborough Extension
Lexington
Long Island Baptist Houses
Low Houses
Pink
Queensbridge North
Queensbridge South
Rangel
Roosevelt I
Roosevelt II
Shelton House
Sumner
Tilden
Unity Plaza (Sites 17,24,25A)
Unity Plaza (SITES 4-27)
Van Dyke I
Van Dyke II
Vandalia Avenue
Wagner
Washington
Williamsburg
Woodson

Better Windows

Armstrong I
Baruch Houses Addition
Betances I
Bethune Gardens
Borinquen Plaza I
Boston Road Plaza
Bronx River Addition
Brown
Cassidy-Lafayette
Chelsea Addition
Claremont Parkway- Franklin Avenue
College Avenue – East 165^th Street
Conlon Lihfe Towers
Corsi Houses
Davidson
East 152^nd Street- Courtlandt Avenue
Fort Washington Avenue Rehab
Garvey (Group A)
Glebe Avenue- Westchester Avenue
Haber
Harborview Terrace
Hope Gardens
International Tower
Kingsborough Extension
La Guardia Addition
Leavitt Street- 34^th Avenue
Lower East Side I
Marshall Plaza
Meltzer Tower
Middletown Plaza
Mitchel
Morris Park Senior Citizens Home
Morrisania Air Rights
Palmetto Gardens
Public School 139 (Conversion)
Randall Avenue-Balcom Avenue
Rehab Program (College Point)
Reid Apartments
Robbins Plaza
Roosevelt I
Shelton House
Stuyvesant Gardens II
Surfside Gardens
Twin Parks East (Site 9)
Union Avenue – East 163^rd Street
Upaca (Site 5)
Upaca (Site 6)
Van Dyke II
Vandalia Avenue
West Brighton II
West Tremont Avenue – Sedgewick Avenue
White
Woodson